SOUP (protocol)

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This article is about the offline usenet reader protocol. For the food classification, see soup.

SOUP (Simple Offline Usenet Protocol) is a standard, similar to QWK, for reading and posting to Usenet using an offline reader. It never attained much popularity, but it provided a convenient method of Usenet access during the brief period of the 1980s when it was easy to get a dial-up shell account, but Operating System limitations made it impossible or difficult to use SLIP or PPP. Its other rationale, like QWK and other offline reading systems, was to minimize the time actually spent connected to a remote system in order to cut telephone bills.

SOUP was originally called the "Helldiver Packet Format" or HDPF, and was devised by Rhys Weatherley near the end of 1992. A variant of HDPF, called the "Simple Local News Packet" format or SLNP, was devised by Philippe Goujard soon afterwards. SOUP ultimately combined the features of both HDPF and SLNP.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ alt.usenet.offline-reader FAQ (2002). Retrieved 2007-12-07 from http://www.faqs.org/faqs/off-line-readers/usenet/intro/.


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