Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ginosko!uunet!cbmvax!atha!lyndon
From: lyndon@cs.AthabascaU.CA (Lyndon Nerenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: Zmodem added to UUCP
Keywords: Zmodem, UUCP
Message-ID: <1126@aurora.AthabascaU.CA>
Date: 28 Sep 89 17:11:10 GMT
References: <3602@escargot.UUCP> <3217@ccnysci.UUCP> <518@crdos1.crd.ge.COM>
Organization: Athabasca University
Lines: 23

davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr) writes:

>|  	o Encryption
>|  
>|  	o Data Compression
>  There seems to be little to gain by adding a lot of features to uucp
>for doing things which are easily done by separate programs. Adding
>features which are not generally needed makes the program larger, more
>complex, and less reliable. 

There is another hidden problem here. If the compression or encryption
algorithms change in a way that's incompatible with existing systems,
you either have to change the protocol name, or add version numbering.
I don't like the first solution since there are a limited number of
protocol identifiers available, and the second requires your uucico
to support ALL versions of the protocols, or reject connections with
sites running older versions of the software (that you no longer support).

-- 
Lyndon Nerenberg  VE6BBM / Computing Services / Athabasca University
  {alberta,decwrl,lsuc}!atha!lyndon || lyndon@cs.AthabascaU.CA
     "I think every man should have a wife.  You can't blame
         everything on the government."  -- Jed Clampett