Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site down.FUN Path: utzoo!decvax!mcnc!unc!ulysses!allegra!princeton!down!honey From: honey@down.FUN (Peter Honeyman) Newsgroups: net.news.config Subject: Re: Abuse of ``DIRECT'' in Usenet maps Message-ID: <526@down.FUN> Date: Thu, 4-Jul-85 23:20:29 EDT Article-I.D.: down.526 Posted: Thu Jul 4 23:20:29 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 5-Jul-85 08:10:22 EDT References: <1738@amdahl.UUCP> Organization: Princeton University, EECS Lines: 12 pathalias lacks a distinction between local and long-distance calls. of late, DIRECT has been used to represent local calls. for what it's worth, this meets with my approval. something pathalias has never had is a clear criterion for optimality. for the most part, pathalias attempts to minimize delay, but there are other considerations, e.g., dollar cost, shunning ambiguous addresses, avoiding traversals through closed networks, etc., etc. anyone with the latest version (for instance, you, gordon) might peek at the heuristics in mapit.c. i get grossed out (and i wrote it!). peter