Newsgroups: news.software.b
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: NNTP vs Cnews (was: Re: Cnews is not for me)
Message-ID: <1989Aug18.180614.25944@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <2828@ndsuvax.UUCP> <1989Aug12.221624.12153@utstat.uucp> <1894@ucsd.EDU> <1989Aug13.071802.5187@utzoo.uucp> <527@logicon.arpa> <9636@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us> <1989Aug16.182527.24840@utzoo.uucp> <13705@nuchat.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 89 18:06:14 GMT

In article <13705@nuchat.UUCP> steve@nuchat.sccsi.com (Steve Nuchia) writes:
>In an nntp environment, which is what I think we should all be
>planning future development work for...

Although NNTP is good stuff, remember that there are a *lot* of sites that
are still connected by good old UUCP, and this isn't likely to change any
time soon.  Joining "interactive" networks that can do NNTP usually costs
money; linking up by UUCP is often free.

> ...the disk files cease to
>be so significant.  There are good low-overhead ways to implement
>single-process database software...

Except that none of the news readers know about them.  The news readers
don't have to have information that is right up to the latest second, but
it's necessary to flush in-core information periodically unless you want
to fix *all* of the news readers to talk to the database process.  There
are *lots* of news readers, many more than you think.  Changing all of
them won't be fun.  Like it or not, the disk files remain important
because they are a de-facto standard interface.

>... I still think a long-running daemon is the way to go.

You may well be right, but somebody is going to have to put in a significant
amount of effort to find out; it's not a five-minute hack.
-- 
V7 /bin/mail source: 554 lines.|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
1989 X.400 specs: 2200+ pages. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu