Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watcgl.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!watnot!watcgl!drforsey
From: drforsey@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Forsey)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari16
Subject: Posting Binaries
Message-ID: <430@watcgl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Mar-86 19:56:23 EST
Article-I.D.: watcgl.430
Posted: Tue Mar 11 19:56:23 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Mar-86 06:13:21 EST
References: <54600015@iuvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: drforsey@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Forsey)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 56
Keywords: binary source
Summary: Mail binaries, post sources

In article <54600015@iuvax.UUCP> someone@iuvax.UUCP writes:

>This is the best WHATCHAMACALLIT so far for the ST.  
>
>Below are the .acc and .rsc files needed...
>-------------------------cut here-----------------------------

       325 lines of uuencoded data follow.

A Suggestion:
-------------

  One can easily see how net.sources (and perhaps the net in general) has
dropped in quality over the past year or so. (if your site archives
net.sources just have a look at all the subject lines, Waterloo just
recently culled its archives and the results were not impressive.)

This particular newsgroup has been very informative and it would be a shame
to see it degrade to the point where it became a forum for posting binaries
and follow the pattern of net.micro.mac (which has now become 3 newsgroups,
mod.mac.binaries, net.sources.mac, and net.micro.mac).

The suggestion is merely this:

  If you have a binary to distribute, in whatever form, you post your
e-mail address (with alternate routes) to net.micro.atari16 to announce
its availability.

Interested parties can then use mail to request a copy from the author.

  Personally I would prefer that only source gets posted. Yes not everyone
has a developers kit, yes mail fouls up, and yes, source never seems to 
compile correctly on your particular system/compiler, but it is much 
more enlightening for the reader to see how someone has done something,
and it reduces the net traffic. 

  But consider, how many people who have access to usenet don't also have
access to someone with a compiler for the ST (either friends or on a BBS),
and how often, as has happened with hack, has one source distribution
for a particular machine/compiler proliferated onto several different 
machines/compilers.

  Posting binaries distributes programs, posting source distributes 
knowledge, and knowledge helps to make more programs for everyone!


I don't really expect the above appeal to make any difference but... 
one lives in hope.

Dave Forsey
Computer Graphics Laboratory
University of Waterloo
Waterloo Ont. CANADA  

uucp:  {decvax,utzoo,allegra,ihnp4}!watmath!watcgl!drforsey
csnet: drforsey@waterloo.csnet