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From: tim@k.cs.cmu.edu (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: Ban the binaries!
Message-ID: <646@k.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Tue, 19-Nov-85 16:54:22 EST
Article-I.D.: k.646
Posted: Tue Nov 19 16:54:22 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 23-Nov-85 00:12:46 EST
References: <1600@cbosgd.UUCP>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, Networking
Lines: 18

I don't think you folks understand programming on the Mac very well.  Most
sources are unusable by most people.  Let's say I decoide to post TELNET and
TFTP for the Mac in source code exclusively.  Great.  Now everyone who has a
Lisa and Lisa Pascal can make it.  Wow.  That is, what, 5% or less of Mac
users?  Let's say I'd written it in Megamax C.  Great.  Now what about the
people who use incompatible C compilers?  I think you get the idea, so let's
not go into Rascal, Object Pascal, MacApp, MacForth, and so on.

The Mac is not UNIX.  There is not one relatively standard compiler that
everyone uses.  #ifdef's just don't cut it, because the compilers are very
different from each other.  The idea of distributing source only is,
frankly, stupid, and people who have programmed so little on the Mac that
they would make such a suggestion should not be going around pretending to
be experts.
-=-
Tim Maroney, CMU Center for Art and Technology
Tim.Maroney@k.cs.cmu.edu	uucp: {seismo,decwrl,etc.}!k.cs.cmu.edu!tim
CompuServe:	74176,1360	I am my own hunchbacked assistant.