Guys, I'm sorry if this has re-opened old memories of the "NNTP wars" and the "Great Listserv Battle", and caused flashbacks and "post-http-stress-disorder"! :)
That wasn't my intention, I swear! Of course, it would be naïve of me to think that any urge to fix and update (or "change", as it's called :) things wouldn't cause some conflict Having said that, if I can inject my own experiences I remember long nights with my mates running uucp and 2400 baud modems and writing connect scripts and resetting ttys frantically trying to recycle serial ports And that was leading-edge technology, oh my! That was so much fun, and it was "only" a hobby, I had to go and do paid work the next day. The one thing I do know for sure is that technology has got to the point now where it isn't just one thing that will be what we (and by "we" I mean you guys, and eventually, hopefully, me as well) will use to do what we need to with fpc and lazarus. So I think there's a good chance that we'll use listserv technology to do what we need to communicate to people, and a choice of nntp and http clients for anyone who's more comfortable that way. We don't need to go completely one way OR the other, and most modern forum software acknowledges that. Bottom line, we call sendmail() to notify, isamdb() (or whatever) for storage, and probably http for ui and management. My hope is that we get to meet and maybe even exceed people's expectations for help with problems, looking after the data in the archives and making that available to anyone who needs it, regardless of the interface we provide. But, in reality, people these days find listserv difficult to understand, set up, and keep on top of. Especially when messages are more easily and safely stored where they'll do the most good - in a globally-accessible searchable relational database (which is still pretty old technology - maybe not smoking jacket-and-pipe old, but it's been around for a while). You can still download and store the data you need if you still want to do that. The same goes (I'm sorry to say) for nntp servers and clients. Just saying clients and servers takes me back to the good ol' days of users respectfully requesting bits of information from the Acolytes and Maintainers of the Archive There are better and far more easily and securely available protocols that no-one has to install clients for, or configure passwords and ports and ssl hashes, or try and come up with a hierarchical structure that makes sense to them, and only them The bottom line is, what we're used to (and I still have my CP/M and Borland news server lists updated every week, trust me!) isn't necessarily what new users are going to expect. They're not even going to ask for that information - they're going to expect it to be provided for them, in a format that is secure, infinitely searchable, fast, nice-looking (that always helps) and that they don't have to download, install, configure, test, and maintain. That's most definitely what we're used to, I agree, but it's not how things work these days, except for a valiant few. (That's us). One thing I've learned from these interesting discussions is that whatever form the site morphs into, it will need to be able to at least allow a couple of different ways of getting that information. If that means we have to build an nntp servlet interface for people most comfortable with nntp clients, let's at least try to include that as part of the service. I don't know of any modern server software that provides multiple protocol access to the same datastore, but you guys know more about that than I do! If it's possible, why not build it in? Then at least you get to compare access types and see what really works for you. I'm truly not just a forum-promoting hyper-unrealistic change monkey. I'm too old and way too tired for that these days, trust me! :) But the thing that's drawn me in to this whole situation, is that the way it works now *can* be improved (hopefully without degrading any part of the community interaction), and by improving it, we make it easier and "funner" for new users of fpc to come onboard and ask, contribute, whine, and discuss. I suspect that's a good thing, but it's not up to me, I'm just the spanner in the works! I sound like a real estate developer. Kill me now, please. -Pete _______________________________________________ fpc-devel maillist - fpc-devel@lists.freepascal.org http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-devel