Geoff Collyer:
The news overview (nov) database is a textual database of some news
article headers, and is intended to replace the voluminous binary
databases (with associated byte-order swapping hassles) maintained by
newsreaders such as nn and trn, one database per newsreader.  The nov
database and the reference access library are extensible, and the
database is sharable by multiple newsreaders and relatively cheap to
maintain.  The reference access library will perform on-the-fly threading,
which is cheap enough to make storing thread links on disk pointless.

I have done no work on making nov databases accessible via NNTP, since I
think NNTP is the wrong way to read news, but others have.  I cannot act
as a central clearinghouse for information on nov over NNTP; sorry.

Here's world.std.com:src/news/README.nov:

If you've come here looking for the news overview database software (nov),
pick up *.dist.tar.Z, which includes the nov library and support software
and nov-ised proof-of-concept versions of vnews, nn and trn.  These
versions of the newsreaders aren't guaranteed to get all the details
right; you'll have to wait for official releases incorporating nov
support from the various reader maintainers for that.

Previously, the "P" command in nov-ised nn didn't go back a group and
nov-ised nn wanted to read a MASTER or GROUP file rather than active.
Wolfgang Rupprecht sent me patches that appear to fix these defects and I
have incorporated them into the nov-ised nn distribution.

[Note: this subject is now more extensively coverd in the posting maintained
by Rob Robertson <rob@agate.Berkeley.EDU> entitled "FAQ:  Overview database
/ NOV General Information." -- Mark]

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