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From: dwp@ladon.resdoc.cs.cmu.edu (Doug Philips)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: Just wondering
Keywords: Forth, SIMTEL20, BBS
Message-ID: <9978@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 23 Jul 90 15:02:03 GMT
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 39

>  Is there any particular reason, other than time and expense,
>why no one with cheap (local) access to the various FORTH BBS's
>hasn't uploaded many of the files there to SIMTEL ??
>
>Jeff Sicherman
>jajz801@calstate.bitnet

Several reasons:
	The SIMTEL archive maintainer for DOS and whatnot,
Keith Petersen, lost his job because of a loss of funding.
	SIMTEL is also extremely tight on space (funding again),
so only binaries and some sources were even being accepted
(before Keith left).
	SIMTEL only accepts some kinds of materials.  I had tried to get
BBL/Abundance accepted on SIMTEL, but KP felt it wasn't really shareware
but cripple-ware. (I didn't have the time/energy to "fight" about it.)
	OLIS (Thomas Rolf's server) is available to
hold and distribute text related to Forth (He has no room for binaries/
source).  I currently make some of the GEnie files referenced in articles
ported to comp.lang.forth from ForthNet available by email.  I have contacted
UUNET about setting up an archive, but they will only support PD software
available in source form (not binary, not random related text, not shareware).

If anyone knows of any site on the net which has the space (30-50 Meg) and
political climate to hold the current slew of stuff available (GEnie, xCFB's)
please let me or Gary Smith (ForthNet's papa) know.  (FIG's GEnie library
regularly exchanges files with the xCFB's so that they are usually not more
than a few months of differences between them).  I am willing to put in
the time and effort to manage the archive and coordinate uploads and downloads
with the rest of ForthNet.  This means that a potential site doesn't have to
donate scarce human resources, only scare disk/net resources.

Please RSVP to 'willett!dwp@hobbes.cert.sei.cmu.edu' or 'uunet!willett!dwp'.
I don't usually post from here, but I wanted to get an especially timely
answer out.

-Doug

(In a pinch: dwp+@cs.cmu.edu)