optimized network paths for news 2.10.2

[William L. Sebok]

> The official distribution HAS had such a feature since 2.10, over
> a year ago.  You just define INTERNET and replies use the From
> line rather than the Path line.
> 
> If you have pathalias on your system, you probably have a mailer
> that is capable of dealing with internet addresses, or can make it
> happen trivially.
> 
> The Path line is not intended for replies, it's intended to keep
> articles from looping around the network.  The fact that it's being
> used for replies just means that people don't have routing software.

I disagree totally.  My own feeling is that the person sending the reply
should have control of the path and be able to override a (possibly erroneous)
smart mailer.  I have a smart mailer but don't trust it unless I can see
what it is doing.

Also the patch inside vnews is able to make use of the additional information
in the Path line when the destination site itself is not present in the data
base.
-- 
Bill Sebok			Princeton University, Astrophysics
{allegra,akgua,burl,cbosgd,decvax,ihnp4,noao,princeton,vax135}!astrovax!wls