Newsgroups: news.software.b
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: C news canonsys.awk can exceed static awk limits
Message-ID: <1990Feb19.191324.9367@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1990Feb18.132237.6360@is.uu.no>
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 90 19:13:24 GMT

In article <1990Feb18.132237.6360@is.uu.no> ra@is.uu.no (Robert Andersson) writes:
>If you have a big ~news/sys file entry awk fails when running the
>canonsys.awk script.  It complains that the string is 'too long to print'.
>The symptom is that checkgroups control messages don't work.
>
>Shame on awk for imposing static limits as low as this.
>Perhaps C news had better rewrite this in C instead?

Sigh...  It is really difficult to decide what to do when support tools
make life much easier but fail on extreme cases.  (In this particular one,
very precise selectivity in the ME line is probably better done with a
less precise ME line plus use of the "x" form of the fourth field of the
active file.)  The checkgroups stuff needs a wholesale rewrite anyway.
Actually, what it needs first is a precise specification, but that's a
different kettle of worms...
-- 
"The N in NFS stands for Not, |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
or Need, or perhaps Nightmare"| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu