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From: jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Subject: Re: source packages and supported platforms (was Re: v18i084: Zsh 2.00 - A small complaint)
In-Reply-To: kent@sparky.IMD.Sterling.COM's message of 26 Apr 91 15:51:06 GMT
Message-ID: <JIK.91Apr28012246@pit-manager.mit.edu>
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Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
References: <1991Apr25.004233.22900@wolves.uucp>
	<1991Apr25.145012.25954@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu>
	<1991Apr25.201646.13689@athena.mit.edu>
	<1991Apr26.155106.10943@sparky.IMD.Sterling.COM>
Date: Sun, 28 Apr 91 05:22:54 GMT
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In article <1991Apr26.155106.10943@sparky.IMD.Sterling.COM> kent@sparky.IMD.Sterling.COM (Kent Landfield) writes:

   This is being done with the Environment: header line in comp.sources.games.

When we were discussing how to do things in c.s.r, we discussed
putting the environment information in a header line.  However, we
decided in the end not to do this for a few reasons (and I'm sure that
if I forget any of them, someone else who was involved in the
discussion will pipe up):

1. Non-standard header lines are, in general, a bad idea.  For
   example, the header lines that rn is capable of manipulating (i.e.
   showing vs. hiding) are hard-coded, and it can't deal with any
   lines that aren't in its hard-coded list (obviously, this is a
   major lose, and some newsreaders {such as xrn} have overcome this
   difficulty, but it's still a problem).

2. The environment information often takes more than one line.  Or, in
   order to fit it on one line confusing abbreviations sometimes have
   to be used.

3. Archives are often kept of shar files without saving the headers of
   the messages that came with the shars.  If important information is
   in the header, that information ca be lost.

So, the end result of our discussion was the conclusion that the
environment restrictions on packages would be described in the text of
its introductory posting, rather than in a header line.

Of course, if comp.sources.games has been using a header line, and
they haven't had any problems, perhaps we should reconsider our
decision.  But I think I'll hold off on suggesting that until we do it
the way we've decided to for a while so that we have something we can
compare against how comp.sources.games does things.

Jonathan Kamens			              USnail:
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