From: clemon@lemsys.UUCP (Craig Lemon VE3XCL)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.uucp
Subject: Re: ARn problems
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 10:20:26 EST
 <281292i0556@hamburg.uucp>
Distribution: world
Organization: Private UUCP "Twig" Node
X-Newsreader: Arn V1.00

In article <281292i0556@hamburg.uucp>, Kai 'wusel' Siering writes:

> %        Well, after tinkering, I've got a sorted ACTIVE file but I still
> % have the .grouplist sorted the way I like it.  It's working so far (but I'm
> % hanging onto beta rel2.
> 
> Err ... You posted with `Arn 1.00', no `beta' -- what's happening?

        Why does this confuse everyone so much!!!  I said : "It's [Arn
v1.00] working so far but I'm hanging onto beta rel2."  ie. I'm not throwing
away the beta2 release yet.  It (v1.00) is running much smoother now than
when I posted the previous message and in the meantime I've also found that
the archive I had was incorrect and have re-FTPed and re-installed Arn
v1.00.

>      Please note that Arn 1.00 has been compiled with SAS/C 6 -- and some
> `features' of this Arn are there just because of this fact (namely the bug
> with Arn not recognizing the `SCREENDATA'-entry) =:-< Roland tried but
> lacked the time to include the source with this distribution (he's
> currently on vaccation). Please collect all bugs and send them to Roland
> in Janurary 1993 ...

        I've already been in contact with Roland.

> % part of the idiot-proofing of the program, and arnmaster should have never
> % allowed it in the first place.  It's unknown if the new arnmaster fixes
> % this as I manually removed the problem.
> 
>      Well, at least in wCNews, without human interaction, there simply
> CAN'T be a duplicate entry in the active file -- so why bother to check
> against this? Any user tinkering with sensitive data like the active file
> really SHOULD be aware of what he's doing. (Nevertheless, no program
> should ever crash due to simply human malfunction ...)

        I am quite aware of what I'm doing with the active file.  Arnmaster
has maintained my activefile from day one and must have created the
duplicate entry at some point, for some reason.  Not everyone runs CNews
and arnmaster is in place to create an accurate ACTIVE-file for non-CNews
operators.  Why not bother to check against this?  Checking for anything
and everything is usually part of good programming.  An analogy would be if
someone pressed a key that had no function in Arn, it exited because it
didn't find a routine to execute that goes with that key.  "Anyone who has
installed Arn should be well aware of what they're doing.  Why bother to
check for invalid keypresses?"  Same thing.  Sorting and checking for
duplicate ACTIVE-file entries should be something that Arnmaster do in the
future, at least for the '-A' option for people running Dillon's UUCP where
there isn't news transport software also looking after it.  This sort of
thing is part of building a solid, well-written, well thought out software
package.  Roland doesn't do this for a living or anything (and it is
PD/Shareware) so I can't expect perfection, but revisions keep coming with
modifications and bug-fixes, and this should be seriously thought about for
the next version of arnmaster.

>      Well, Roland just told me (in de.comp.sys.amiga.uucp) to print out
> the Arn.dvi and read this carefully ... Maybe this would work for you, too
> =:-> Please bear in mind that this release was dictated by time -- Roland
> had to leave for Chirstmas in time and he decided to release this version
> BEFORE he left ... He'll be back in mid-January, so please be patient,
>                       kai

        I will be printing it out as soon as I have laser access.  I like
printing things 4 pages/side, double-sided as it saves paper and is still
very readable (for me anyways).

>  _ //   Kai 'wusel' Siering, Villa Straylight, Hamburg, Germany. Go for MIME!
>  \X/: <wusel@hactar.hanse.de>  Exile: <wusel@wolfhh.hanse.de>  iso-8859-1: 


--
 Craig Lemon VE3XCL (Advanced) - Kitchener, Ontario. +1 519 741 0297
 clemon@lemsys.UUCP clemon%lemsys@xenitec.on.ca  | 1B Electrical Engineering
 TCP/IP: ve3xcl@ve3xcl.ampr.org [44.135.84.51]   |  University of Waterloo
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