Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!dali.cs.montana.edu!milton!ogicse!mintaka!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!cernvax!chx400!ugun2b!ugsc2a!fisher
From: fisher@sc2a.unige.ch
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: Why are postings NOT in shar form
Message-ID: <1990Dec5.120318.335@sc2a.unige.ch>
Date: 5 Dec 90 10:03:17 GMT
References: <1717@syteke.be>
Organization: University of Geneva, Switzerland
Lines: 20

In article <1717@syteke.be>, jim@syteke.be (Jim Sanchez) writes:
> [...] Given that most (I assume) are reading
> and posting news from *NIX type machines, why don't the uuencoded
> files get wrapped up so a simple sh <file> will expose them.

I guess that "most" is not enough.  Unix provides serval simple means to
automate the extraction of zoo'ed, uuencoded, multiple-parts posting.
As this is c.b.IMP.PC, it is natural that the most effort is put towards
PC users (with the inherent limitations of MS-DOS...).

As an example: I read news on a VAX-VMS machine, (automatically) transfer
the uuendcoded parts to my PC and run Richard Marks' uudecode.  I do not
want to run some `unshar' for the PC, mind you.

But, there's good news:  If the latest version of R.M.'s uudecode becomes
the standard, then we could satisfy everybody:  according the the docs the
latest version can extract uuencoded data from a shar file!  (don't hold your
breath, though, this is probably not for tomorow...).

Markus Fischer, Dpt. of Anthropology, Geneva CH