Subj : Filefind file limit
To   : Vince Coen
From : mark lewis
Date : Wed Oct 25 2017 11:10 am

On 2017 Oct 25 14:36:30, you wrote to Andrew Leary:

AL>> In the future, I can look at possibly splitting large replies into
AL>> multiple messages.

VC> In mbse there is a 60/64k message limit does this still apply in fido
VC> land these days with internet comms used for most if not all sysops ?

there never was a limit on message size... what everyone has been seeing is
arbitrary limits placed by ""lazy"" coders*... the tech standard states that
message bodies are unbounded which means there is no limit set... this leaves
plenty of room for expansion as technology grows... we can see this by this
very 64k barrier... it used to be 32k... these days, memory is accessed
differently and the barrier is much much larger... effectively, each system is
limited by drive space*N where N is the number of copies of the message a
system makes when processing the message... copies because of sending to other
systems in a distribution system (eg: fidonet)...


* ""lazy"" coders: those who didn't implement some sort of disk-based overflow
system so they could process messages too large to fit into the memory
allocation scheme of the time... sure, the larger messages would be processed
slower but they would be processed and passed on... no need for splitting...
splitting should be done only when the messages are stored in a local message
base that has arbitrary message size limits in place... split the message when
initially stored... reassemble it into one when exporting it to other systems
(eg: they rescanned the area)... the ^ASPLIT spec is perfect for this but some
chose to use it at another point in the process...

)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey
Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer doin' it
wrong...
... The road to success is often under construction...
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* Origin:  (1:3634/12.73)