Newsgroups: news.software.b
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: news.software.c
Message-ID: <1989Jul7.173432.21814@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <2076@taux01.UUCP> <318@capmkt.COM> <WISNER.89Jul6120101@anableps.berkeley.edu> <59719@uunet.UU.NET>
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 89 17:34:32 GMT

In article <59719@uunet.UU.NET> rick@uunet.UU.NET (Rick Adams) writes:
>Rick has said many times that whenever a news system comes out with
>less bugs that the current 2.11.18 he is running he will switch to it.
>
>Note 1) He said less bugs, not bugfree...

Well, you may have noticed an absence of much in the way of C News bug
reports.  That's because there hasn't been much in the way of bugs.
There are a few minor things that the next patch will clear up -- the
worst is the order dependency of the -C and -d options in inews, not what
one would call a disastrous problem -- but basically it's stable software.

>Note 3) He considers the missing options/flags in Cnews to be bugs 
>	and also recognizes that Henry/Geoff don't think so...

Speaking more generally, not just to Rick:  we are always interested in
hearing *specifics* of why missing features are causing real problems.
Note, we want to know exactly what is missing (requests to implement the
union of all wishlists will be pointedly ignored), why it would cause
problems *today* (hypothetical problems that might occur in the future
are unlikely to move us to action today), and whether there is an easy
workaround (since we do not claim to provide a turnkey solution for all
the world's ills).  While there are a lot of things we didn't include,
only some of the omissions are the result of firm convictions that feature
X does not belong in C News.  Many things were omitted simply because we
didn't think them important enough to include (since any inclusion has
a cost).  On such things, we're open to detailed, well-reasoned arguments
from people who really need what we left out.
-- 
$10 million equals 18 PM       |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
(Pentagon-Minutes). -Tom Neff  | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
