Path: utzoo!utstat!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!intercon!news
From: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Dynamic "smart" expiration?
Message-ID: <1670@intercon.com>
Date: 2 Jan 90 19:01:53 GMT
References: <1989Dec27.033817.9953@smsc.sony.com> <1989Dec28.063932.13720@robohack.UUCP> <68634@looking.on.ca> <1989Dec29.213539.2801@utzoo.uucp> <6118@yunexus.UUCP> <69448@looking.on.ca> <1120@utoday.UUCP> <`QF52&@rpi.edu> <69654@looking.on.ca> <89Dec31.171430es <BR
Sender: news@intercon.com
Reply-To: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker)
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In article <69903@looking.on.ca>, brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) writes:
> Let's define an extensible format, hack rn and readnews to understand it,
> and then everybody can use it.

There seems to be an underlying assumption here.  Fewer and fewer people
are using rn, readnews, or even UNIX-based news readers.  Rather than
trying to infer information from an ever-muddier environment by rooting
through .{news,gnus,gnews,...}rc files, maybe a better approach would be
to make it explicit.  Once you start introducing news reading via NFS, NNTP,
PCMAIL, or whatever, the difficulty of picking up readership information
"for free" starts to skyrocket.  Horsepower-poor sites, which are where
the biggest crunches are occuring, are exactly the same sites that are
most likely to start distributing the load via the approaches above, and
thus will have the hardest time picking up readership information for
free.  Look at the arguments about Arbitron's accuracy these days...

Maybe news reading needs to become more transaction oriented; I don't
know.  Various people have done hacks to NNTP that show that it's at
least a fruitful approach, and it keeps things simple by not requiring
news *reading* software to store and maintain information required by
the database *maintenance* software (inews, expire, et al.).  Keeping
the two separate is a good thing, IMHO.  Saves headaches all around.

But, if you really want to define an extensible format, how about not
reinventing the wheel too much--something like a printable-ASCII (so you
can edit it with a text editor if necessary), easily-parsable block
structured thing, such as a printable version of ASN.1.  This way, programs
can skip over new things that they don't know about, without having to
be recompiled every time somebody adds Yet Another Flag or Option.

$.02,

Amanda Walker
InterCon Systems Corporation
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