Newsgroups: news.software.b Path: utzoo!utstat!geoff From: geoff@utstat.uucp (Geoff Collyer) Subject: C news compatibility (was Re: Patch dates or Patch Numbers) Message-ID: <1989Aug18.102335.17269@utstat.uucp> Organization: Statistics, U. of Toronto References: <1989Aug9.164003.20669@utzoo.uucp> <6717@dayton.UUCP> <1989Aug17.171000.23302@utzoo.uucp> <64033@uunet.UU.NET> Date: Fri, 18 Aug 89 10:23:35 GMT Rick Adams: >Cnews [sic] is another transport system (just like notes is). it may be >better or worse, but it clearly paid no attention to backwards >compatibility. Nonsense. C news meets the specification for message format in RFC 1036 and provides a compatible interface to the newsreaders (e.g. the active file, stored articles and silly options to inews); our sys file is compatible with the B 2.11 one except for a few obsolete options for multicasting (see our batcher) and unbatched ihave/sendme. News administration differs somewhat from B news, but the C news rules are documented and easy to learn. We exchange news with B news sites and have run vanilla news readers like readnews, rn and nn locally. -- Geoff Collyer utzoo!utstat!geoff, geoff@utstat.toronto.edu