Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!daver!tscs!tct!chip
From: chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: The BITNET munge.
Message-ID: <26A34997.6288@tct.uucp>
Date: 17 Jul 90 17:23:35 GMT
References: <269DC7FD.5AD4@tct.uucp> <269DC6A1.5A53@tct.uucp> <F#5p._$@cs.psu.edu>
Organization: ComDev/TCT, Sarasota, FL
Lines: 29

According to flee@guardian.cs.psu.edu (Felix Lee):
>Chip Salzenberg <chip@tct.uucp>:
>>Didn't anyone on BITNET think of passing articles along in ASCII and
>>translating them AFTER retransmitting them?
>
>Keep two copies of every article?  Why?  The bulk of news is english
>text and doesn't require high fidelity.

True.  Such a mechanism could be used for the sources groups only.
It wouldn't be hard to maintain a list of them.

>>As far as I'm concerned, if they can't be troubled to translate ASCII
>>without lossage, munged sources are their own problem.
>
>"they" are really only a few sites that are doing Usenet<->BITNET
>gatewaying.

And the sites behind those gateways have the power to seek their
newsfeeds elsewhere if their current gateways are unsatifactory.

>I don't believe in catering to broken transmission paths either, but I
>don't know of any pure data paths for news.

I'm not looking for perfection; but I'm not going to give up my
curly braces without a fight, either.  :-)
-- 
Chip Salzenberg at ComDev/TCT     <chip@tct.uucp>, <uunet!ateng!tct!chip>
"Most of my code is written by myself.  That is why so little gets done."
		-- Herman "HLLs will never fly" Rubin