Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!math.lsa.umich.edu!math.lsa.umich.edu!emv From: emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti) Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Re: v08i108: checktd, response from the author.... Message-ID: Date: 13 Oct 90 05:59:42 GMT References: <2022@sixhub.UUCP> <1990Oct5.103423.8051@uwasa.fi> <5996@minyos.xx.rmit.oz> <1990Oct12.105211.21451@uwasa.fi> Sender: usenet@math.lsa.umich.edu Organization: University of Michigan Math Dept., Ann Arbor MI. Lines: 38 In-Reply-To: ts@uwasa.fi's message of 12 Oct 90 10:52:11 GMT In article <1990Oct12.105211.21451@uwasa.fi> ts@uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi) writes: Very difficult. This is where a moderator's judgement (AND time) is needed. The binaries are, of course, up to Bill, but at chyde.uwasa.fi submissions (those which I moderate) I look at the user interface, documentation, the program's principal task and how the program achieves it, and a very subjective feel of general usefulness. It's a little like refereeing a scientific journal, but much much more subjective. I cannot give any strict quantitative guidelines. In general there are many more programs which accomplish a given task than one would need. In an extreme example I recall going through an entire disk full of programs which would change the color of the screen. This is clearly many more that you would want to keep around in any sort of selective archive. When I was organizing the collection on um.cc.umich.edu (now on msdos.archive.umich.edu) back in the days before the collection had internet FTP access and a hierarchical file system, it was imperative to get rid of old programs as much as it was to bring new ones in. From five different fast disk copiers, you would test them all, and maybe keep two on line. And if a radically better one came along, you might drop those two and keep only the one. Software changes quickly. Timo, perhaps you could say, but the useful half life of a piece of software is under a year before a new version is expected or a better program is found to accomplish the same task. Comments by mail, or put the word "ftp" in the article (I ignore the rest...) --Ed Edward Vielmetti, U of Michigan math dept moderator, comp.archives formerly organizer of um.cc.umich.edu PC1: after 1 November