********************************************************************** FTSC FIDONET TECHNICAL STANDARDS COMMITTEE ********************************************************************** Publication: FRL-1001 Revision: 1 Title: Suggested use of Nodelist Fields Author: Lee Kindness Revision Date: 15 June 1999 Expiry Date: N/A ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: 1. Field 3, Node Name 2. Field 4, Location 3. Field 5, Sysop Name ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Status of this document ----------------------- This document is a Fidonet Reference Library document (FRL). This document arises from, and obsoletes FSP-1003 which was not promoted to a Fidonet standard. The reasons for this decision are given below. This document is released to the public domain, and may be used, copied or modified for any purpose whatever. Ajudication ----------- The FTSC decided not to recommend FSP-1003 for promotion to a FidoNet Standard for the following reasons: * It was felt that the statistical analysis used to justify the chosen field sizes was too simplistic. For example, without the standard deviation of each field length it is impossible to estimate the number of nodes who would be required to change their nodelist entries. * Moreover, it is apparent that even with such use of large nodelist fields the existing software is coping without difficulty and there is on justification for imposing limits that did not exist previously. Introduction ------------ This document makes recommendations on the use of various fields in the distribution nodelist (St. Louis nodelist format", fts-0005). Naturally it is the choice of the *C's if they want to use them. Remember the fts-0005 requirements should still be adhered to. 1. Field 3, Node Name --------------------- The node name field should be no more than 20 characters long. For comparison in nodelist.122'1997 the minimum entry was 1, maximum 51! and the average was 14. For zone entries this field should contain a description of the zones area, (eg North America, Europe). For region entries it should contain the country/state, for host entries the local area name and for hub entries a description of the area the hub serves. 2. Field 4, Location -------------------- This field contains the location of the node. It should usually be expressed as the primary local location (town, suburb, city, etc.) plus an identifier of the regional geopolitical administrative district (state, province, department, county, etc.). Wherever possible, standard postal abbreviations for the major regional district should be used (IL, BC, NSW, UK, etc.). For zone and region entries this field should also have the julian day of segment creation appended to it (eg "Somearea_(122)") to aid checks on the validity of the nodelist. 3. Field 5, Sysop Name ---------------------- This field contains the name of the system operator. Entries such as "postmaster" and "uucp" should not be used. Aliases should not be permitted in this field (as they give Fidonet a 'less respectable' image). A. Author contact data ---------------------- Lee Kindness Fidonet: n/a E-mail: wangi@earthling.net WWW: http://www.scms.rgu.ac.uk/students/cs_yr94/lk/fido.html B. History ---------- Rev.1, 990615: Tranformation from FSP-1003 to FRL-1001 **********************************************************************