js>> With some work, the nodelist can be imported into e.g. a database
 js>> table, but handling the diffs is very difficult.

 JV>     Deleting and adding records was already possible with DBASE1 at
 JV> the Jet Propulsion Laberatory, so I do not see what would be the
 JV> problem, unless you spread your fields all over the place.

The problem is how do you know what data to add, update or delete? The
diffs don't say "add 2:204/255..."; they say "copy (ignore)
17 lines", "delete 3 lines", "add the following 4
lines" and so on, so you still need to have the original nodelist to
be able to resolve the diff into something useful. :-(

 JV>     Sure. Bytes 0x20 thru 0x7F plus EOF. We'll tackle your name later
 JV> ;-)

Is that a promise? ;-)

Besides, I'm far from the only one with this problem. I'm just the loudest
one... :-) The Swedish RC (Göran Eriksson), the Norwegian RC (Torbjørn
Mohn) and the Danish RC (Kåre Olsen) all have the same problem, but they
have accepted their "fate" and live quietly in this sad 7-bit
land. ;-)

Maybe there are not that many people in Fidonet using the Greek, Arab or
Hebrew alphabets but there sure are a lot of people using Cyrillic
characters, and then we have the CJK-scripts in Z6, so seven bits doesn't
quite suffice...

 JV>     If you want to write code for the net, you first should look at
 JV> what the net needs and will able to use; your joy should come from a
 JV> job well done, not of the coding itself. That is very much secondary.

Sure, but for me a "job well done" doesn't only mean that it
works. It should be simple, logical, elegant and neat too, and bending,
twisting and inventing new kludges doesn't fit very well into that. :-(

  Jesper,
  yeppe{at}enjoy.cc
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