GNKSA Evaluation Form 2.05 Product Name : Netscape Communicator Product Version : 4.5 Tested on platform : Mac OS 8.5 Available for platforms: Mac OS, Unix, and others Evaluation date : 12/22/1998 (revised 4/6/199) Evaluated by : J. B. Moreno Conclusion ========== Netscape Communicator 4.5 fails to satisfy some basic GNKSA requirement(s), hence does NOT qualify for the Good Net-Keeping Seal of Approval. Summary ======= Pass Fail Total Pass/Fail% MUSTs 28 11 39 72%/28% SHOULDs 12 15 27 44%/56% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 72%M %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 44%S [GNKSA Score-O-Meter] Details ======= Regarding the strict GNKSA requirements (MUSTs), Netscape Communicator 4.5 FAILS on the following points: 2a Does not provide a clear, separate command for posting a new article 5b Does not preserve entire original subject 6a Does not handle Followup-To: poster correctly 11a Does not require a non-empty, user-specified subject 11b Will not refuse to post articles without subject 11c Uses some default subject when the user did not set one 12a May not provide a syntactically correct From-address 12b Fails to refuse to post messages with syntactically incorrect From: 16c Does not warn when posting quoted text only 16e Does not warn against inadvertent multiple postings 17 Can encrypt or encode messages into oblivion by default Netscape Communicator 4.5 violates `soft' GNKSA requirements (SHOULDs) in the following way: 2d Fails to use standard terminology 3b Does not warn when posting to a large number of groups 3c Fails to encourage setting a Followup-To on large crossposts 7e Fails to omit `broken' Message-IDs. 9d Mail message not preceded by notification when posted and mailed 10d Does not omit (proper) signatures from quoted text 10e Does not let the user indicate which part to followup to 12c Can use a bogus e-mail address 13b Does not enable users to supersede their own articles 14a May cause posting mangled articles 14d Does not support rewrapping quoted text correctly 15b Does not warn on, or refuse, excessive signatures 16b Does not refuse posting an empty article 16d Does not refuse to post quoted text only 16f Does not try to prevent posting multiple copies entirely Additional Comments: 5b - Netscape "folds" Subject lines over 80 chars, and it does so incorrectly -- it adds after, instead of just before the existing . This causes problems in other newsreaders in both article sorting and replying. 6a - Obeys "poster" but doesn't /clearly/ inform the user (it's there if they pay attention). 14ac - Default is to wrap at 72 upon sending. Still doesn't wrap in the window based upon line length. 14d - Neither offers a Rewrap command, nor intelligently wraps quoted lines upon either article creation or sending. 16ef - Multiposting occurs when posting and mailing a message, and the mailing fails. Netscape has adopted a extremely bad quoting convention as the default: instead of encouraging the highly desirable `phone conversation' style of interlining at the appropriate places (and removing irrelevant material), it puts the insertion point above the quoted text. Apparently this is done in conformance to existing other software (of the `groupware' type, based on the mistake of mapping concepts onto mail/Usenet that do not translate well at all). On Usenet, other needs have given rise to standards in reply message composition that are flagrantly violated by this ill-behaved followup creation strategy. This broken quoting convention causes trouble: confusion (it is unclear to which part of the quoted text the new material applies to), excessive quoting (people aren't made to understand that editing out the irrelevant material from the quoted material is important), and irritation (because of aggravation because of this bad behaviour, causing more confusion as well as more irritation in its turn). A copy of this review has been sent to the developers. Checklist ========= (M)UST / (S)HOULD 1) Displays all essential header information Software clearly displays: [Y] a) Article's author (From) M [Y] b) Article's Subject M [Y] c) List of groups posted to (Newsgroups) M [Y] d) Where (and how) to direct followups (Followup-To) M [Y] e) Where to reply to if not the From-address (Reply-To) M [Y] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 2) Provides clear, separate commands for new posting, followup, and e-mail reply [N] a) for posting a new article M [Y] b) for posting a followup article M [Y] c) for replying by e-mail M [N] d) Uses standard terminology S [Y] e) Avoids ambiguous terminology S [N] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 3) Provides cross-posting functionality [Y] a) Allows specifying multiple groups M [N] b) Warns about, or prevents, posting to large numbers of groups S [N] c) Strongly encourages setting Followup-To: on large crossposts S (`Y' if large crosspostings are disallowed) [Y] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 4) Allows users to change essential headers [Y] a) Allows editing Subject at all times during composition M [Y] b) Allows specifying new Subject of at least 70 characters M [Y] c) Allows setting "Followup-To: poster" M [Y] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 5) Ensures followups and e-mail replies contain a correct Subject [Y] a) Prepends "Re: " if (and only if) not already present M [N] b) Preserves entire original Subject (modulo minor repairs) M [N] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 6) Directs followups to the correct newsgroups [N] a) Initiates e-mail reply rather than a followup posting on "Followup-To: poster", clearly informing the user M [Y] b) Posts to groups in Followup-To if present M [Y] c) Posts to groups in Newsgroups otherwise M [N] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 7) Make sure followups contain valid References [Y] a) Creates References header with Message-ID of original article as the last element M [Y] b) Includes last three References from original M [Y] c) Ensures References will fit in 998 characters M [Y] d) Keep as many References from original as fit S [N] e) Does not propagate broken Message-IDs in original References S [Y] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 8) Direct e-mail replies to the correct address [Y] a) Uses Reply-To if present M [Y] b) Uses From address otherwise M [Y] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 9) Allow the user to change her mind about whether to post or mail (or do both) and behave if doing both [Y] a) Allows users to change their mind and mail rather than post after having initiated a followup message S [Y] b) Allows users to change their mind and post rather than mail after having initiated a reply message S [Y] c) Does not offer both posting and mailing as default behaviour M [N] d) Inserts a notification that the message was posted as well as mailed in the e-mail copy when both posting and mailing a followup article S [Y] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 10) Provide adequate quotation and attribution facilities [Y] a) Allows including quoted original M [Y] b) Clearly distinguishes quoted material M [Y] c) Prefixes quoted material with `>'/`> ' S [N] d) Omits correctly delimited signatures from quoted material S [N] e) Provides a means of indicating which part(s) to followup to S [Y] f) Attribution line containing original author precedes quotes M [Y] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 11) Provide a user-specified "Subject: " header [N] a) Requires non-empty, user-specified Subject for new articles M [N] b) Refuses posting articles without, or with an empty, Subject M [N] c) Does not provide default Subject if user did not set one M [Y] d) Allows changing the Subject at any time while editing M [N] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 12) Provide a valid "From: " header [N] a) Sets "From: " header to syntactically valid e-mail address M [N] b) Refuses posting articles without a syntactically valid "From: " header M [N] c) Uses correct e-mail addresses (valid and belonging to the user) only, as far as it can possibly know S [N] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 13) Allow users to both cancel and supersede their own articles (and _no_ others!) [Y] a) Allows cancelling articles S [N] b) Allows superseding articles S [Y] c) As far as possible, does not allow cancelling or superseding other peoples' articles M [Y] d) Uses standard terminology S [Y] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 14) Try to respect the 80-character line-length convention [N] a) Articles are posted as edited, with linebreaking intact S [Y] b) Warns about lines over 80 characters S [Y] c) Does not refuse to post articles containing long lines S [N] d) Allows rewrapping quoted text S [Y] e) Enforces formatting requirements on article after external editing (`Y' if there is no support for external editors) S [Y] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 15) Separate signatures correctly, and don't use excessive ones [Y] a) Uses (and enforces) standard signature delimiter S [N] b) Warns against or refuses to use excessive signatures S [Y] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 16) Try to prevent obvious user errors [Y] a) Warns when attempting to post empty articles M [N] b) Refuses posting empty articles S [N] c) Warns when post articles containing quoted material only M [N] d) Refuses posting quoted-text-only articles S [N] e) Warns against posting multiple copies (`Y' if impossible) M [N] f) Prevents multiple posting entirely S [N] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 17) Post human-readable articles unless ordered otherwise [N] Does not (and can not) encode or encrypt articles unless on explicit user demand M [N] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 18) Provide self-protection [Y] Allows filtering out annoying articles (killing) S [Y] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M 19) Be kind to servers, leave room for others [Y] a) Does not unnecessarily open multiple connections M [Y] b) Does not generate excessive server load otherwise M [Y] PASS: Satisfies all MUSTs M