Sat, 27 Feb 1993 15:20:02 +0100
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SEPARATE is a very bad option. Many times I've wanted to remove it (and
SINGLE, too - will you believe there are lists with a single notebook of
3-4M???). It introduces performance problems in many parts of LISTSERV
which I am just not going to spend the time to address. I am not talking
about minor glitches which people more patient than me will tolerate. I
am talking about people asking me how the database functions can be
disabled, because searches on the XYZ-L list take 5 minutes to complete
on their 3090-class machine (because there are 4,000 individual files to
open for a full text search). Others wanted to disable the 'INDEX
listname' feature because the resulting file was too large on their
SEPARATE list. Similarly, I had people ask me how to prevent GET of the
huge notebooks :-) I don't want people to disable the database functions
or remove 'INDEX listname' because they have one list which causes
problems. SEPARATE is a legitimate option for digests or other lists
where there is a posting a month or two. SINGLE is fine for a short-lived
list, one created for 3 weeks to talk about something and then closed.
But trying to use either option for one of its side-effects is something
your are likely to regret a few years later :-)
Eric
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