From: Bruce Lilly (blilly@erols.com)
Date: Fri May 07 2004 - 10:22:50 CDT
Charles Lindsey wrote:
> In <40984D2A.1060209@erols.com> Bruce Lilly <blilly@erols.com> writes:
>
>
>>Charles, you have failed to answer John's question. If in fact his followup
>>agent is vi, do you still intend to require vi to magically generate a
>>default Subject field, References fields, etc., or do you at last recognize
>>the silliness of such requirements in the case where the followup agent is
>>not news-specific (as in the case of vi)?
>
>
> You can do even better than 'vi'. You can even use telnet direct to port 119.
>
> But in either case, the posting agent or the followup agent, as the case
> may be, is not then 'vi' or 'telnet'; it is the software in the user's
> wetware computer.
And unless the user is schizophrenic, there is still no "default"
presented to the user.
> If the user's wetware does all the things required of a
> posting or followup agent, and thereby causes a valid article to be
> injected, then the standard has been complied with. It is in that case the
> user's responsibility to get it right, whether or not his 'vi' or his
> 'telnet' gives him any magical assistance.
The standard is complied with if the standard simply states that the
content is the user's responsibility. Not if the standard requires
a specific user interface.