[mythtv-users] Mooting architecture for a DataDirect replacement

[Dan Ritter]

On Fri, Jun 22, 2007 at 02:30:34PM -0400, Rod Smith wrote:
> > I would expect usability would be the main hinderance with NNTP.
> 
> Why? The idea is not (I presume) to force people to use news readers like 
> Leafnode, Knews, or Pan to download listings. The idea (as I understand it) 
> is to incorporate a specialized NNTP client into MythTV, or to be called by 
> MythTV.

Well, you could start by installing Leafnode and having your
client scan the automatically received messages; that would save
having to write an NNTP client. Not that that's difficult, it's
just already done.

> This client would access the newsgroup(s) that carry the data for an 
> individual's system, download the headers, figure out which ones carry useful 
> data (the subject lines would have to carry highly structured summary data), 

Not just the subject line. Usenet Article Format already has
useful headers such as:

References (for threading)
Supersedes (for changes to existing info)
Expires
From
Distribution (geographical or system specifiers)
Keywords (I don't know, but I expect it could be useful.)

> download the bodies of those messages, and then process those bodies much as 
> MythTV already processes files from other sources. From a user's point of 
> view, all that would be required would be pointing MythTV at an appropriate 
> NNTP server and selecting or creating a lineup in some way. There might also 
> be a possibility to tweak things -- say, by telling the system how often to 
> check for updates. Overall, this wouldn't be much, if any, more complex than 
> what we've got now, from a user's point of view. In fact, in some ways it 
> would be simpler, since you wouldn't have to log onto zap2it to manage your 
> lineups -- you'd do that from your Myth box!

Yup. Better all around.

-dsr-


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