Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!think.com!samsung!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!network.ucsd.edu!slamont
From: slamont@network.ucsd.edu (Steve Lamont)
Newsgroups: alt.sources.d
Subject: Re: REPOST lharc102A Part 01/04 BSD Unix to Amiga archives
Message-ID: <4522@network.ucsd.edu>
Date: 23 Jan 91 00:36:34 GMT
References: <1991Jan19.012025.12536@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <1991Jan19.175350.11910@druid.uucp> <1991Jan20.144049.3404@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
Organization: Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA
Lines: 37

In article <1991Jan20.144049.3404@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes:
>                                          ... It is much less trouble
>for me to save and unpack a coded archive and then see if its subject
>really indicates useful material, and throw it away a minute or two
>later if not, than to debug problems caused by code known to be useful,
>but containing no useful information because the shipping method didn't
>protect the code. ...

With all due respect, I think these are separate issues.

As I've said before, the network transport mechanisms should be fixed if they
scrozzle code.  The burden should be placed on the system, not the user.

I favor cleartext because it is exactly that -- clear text.  I can read it.
I can tell immediately whether it is something I can use or not.

Yes, I can save the files, unpack them, and then scan them.  However, since I
am a guest on this very overloaded machine, this means forwarding the postings
to an account on another machine (I'm sure that the system owners wouldn't
appreciate me filling up their disks, even for only a few minutes, with some
multimegabyte uuencoded, compressed, shar files) and, often as not, fiddle
with ftps and so forth.  The process is cumbersome and, due to circumstances,
not readily automated.

While I clearly don't expect the net to bend to my own peculiar set of
circumstances, I do suggest that some kind of common denominator be adhered
to.  At the present time, cleartext is that common denominator.

							spl (the p stands for
							packed, uuencoded,
							shared, and
							compressed)
-- 
Steve Lamont, SciViGuy -- (408) 646-2572 -- a guest at network.ucsd.edu --
NPS Confuser Center / Code 51 / Naval Postgraduate School / Monterey, CA 93943
"It's not what you know, it's who you know to go ask..."
					- Richard W. Hamming