Re: Why not as a newsgroup?

[Roger Pittman <rpittman@infinet.com>]

On Thu, Jan 14, 1999 at 08:55:00AM +0100, Thomas Adams wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 13, 1999 at 01:32:57AM -0500, Ed Cogburn wrote:
> 
> > 	Don't all news-servers provide for this, and all news-readers
> > implement it?  The news reader in NS Communicator does the above.
> 
> I'm sure every news server lets you download headers only. But what good is 
> that if your client isn't able to demand this? Until now I knew about Windows 
> and Mac newsreaders which do this and now you're telling me about NS. Not that 
> I would use NS for news but it's good to know that there is one Linux program 
> offering this facility.

  Per the source code, the "standard" (oversimplified) sequence is:

1. For each subscribed group, fetch the article count. Calc and
   display group name, number of unread articles, etc.
2. When a group is selected, fetch headers for unread articles.
   Display subject, author, etc.
3. When an article is selected, fetch and display contents.

  I know slrn and trn normally work this way, don't offhand know of
any Linux/Unix newsreader that doesn't. (Yes, if you really want,
they can be config'd to work less efficiently.)

-- 
Regards,
Roger Pittman
News Admin for Lucent NDS              #include <std/disclaimer.h>