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Old October 11th, 2001
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You people that insist that Gnutella servents should have this feature and that feature when such a feature would have to be protocol-based need to read the Gnutella protocol, which I coincidentally just finished reading like 15 minutes ago or so. There you will find that the only thing that the protocol concerns itself with is searching for files that match a search string, pure and simple (of course there are ways to connect to other servents and stuff like that, but I meant functionality-wise). Napster and every single last other non-Gnutella file-sharing program out there is a product, not an implementation of a protocol. As products, they are free to put whatever they want to in them, from chat rooms to buttons that will cause your toaster to automatically make breakfast for you. Gnutella, on the other hand, is a file-search protocol, pure and simple. If one wants to chat with people, one generally doesn't use the Gnutella protocol, although from what I've heard some servents seem to implement features like that, but which are certainly not standard. Gnutella isn't even a file-sharing protocol, strictly; it is a file-search system, because the sharing goes on through HTTP (which will give RIAA lawyers all kinds of fun if they ever decide they want a piece of this over here). So those that demand chatrooms built in to their file-sharing tools (yes, I am aware of what I just called it), the ability to look at other peoples' files in a list, whatever, while those aren't totally crazy things to want (especially looking through a list of what someone has), you will have to either look elsewhere or perhaps try to get the Gnutella protocol modified. The version I just read was version 0.4, but I know there are modifications to it and there is now a version 0.6. If you come up with good ideas that are reasonable and realistic, you have a chance of having them become part of the Gnutella protocol. However, that will almost certainly not happen if you do not write a Gnutella servent, so if you are that interested and really want to have a say in the protocol you should do that. The protocol isn't that hard, believe me. If you can program and use network connections, you can basically program a Gnutella servent. Well, that's enough for now.
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