Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!master!saab!billr From: billr@saab.CNA.TEK.COM (Bill Randle) Newsgroups: comp.sources.d Subject: Re: source packages and supported platforms (was Re: v18i084: Zsh 2.00 - A small complaint) Message-ID: <1175@masterCNA.TEK.COM> Date: 1 May 91 20:26:25 GMT 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> Sender: news@masterCNA.TEK.COM Reply-To: billr@saab.CNA.TEK.COM (Bill Randle) Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Redmond, OR Lines: 30 In article jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) writes: >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. > >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). That's why the c.s.g. Environment: header isn't a news header, but rather a package/archive header. That is, it is included with the Archive-name: and Submitted-by: headers. This way, it should be saved by any newsreader as long as the article is saved, rather than exploded in place (w| unshar). It is true that it limits you to only one line, but if the list of limitations is longer than that, I would suggest that either a better keyword could be used tha encompasses everything or else the package is really specific to a single machine/OS. Don't get me wrong - I think for c.s.reviewed it makes sense to include the limitations in with the other introductory material that is being generated. -Bill Randle Moderator, comp.sources.games Tektronix, Inc. billr@saab.CNA.TEK.COM