🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mon, 18 Mar 1996 22:30:56 GMT, David Woolley <david@djwhome.demon.co.uk>
wrote, amongst many other statements, 

>Actually, the most commonly held position is that the protocol is now
>specified by the reference implementation rather than the document.  The
>reference implementation is some version of the nntp package with C-News.
>

Are you saying that an organisation wishing to implement an NNTP compatible
news reader or to provide a news service using this protocol must do so by
reference to a particular implementation and that any deviation from that
implementation is "non-standard" ?

Is this "reference implementation" fully documented and is that document in
the public domain?

Where may I find it ?

Does this "reference implementation" contain any features which may only be
used by others under a licensing agreement?

By whom is this "the most commonly held position" and have they publicly
declared this view?

Has the appropriate body declared that RFC 977 is no longer the accepted
reference document and that a more restrictive specification now applies?

---
Fred Hartley