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From: spaf@gatech.UUCP
Newsgroups: news.groups,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Binary newsgroups (was: new group for Atari ST software)
Message-ID: <12621@gatech.EDU>
Date: Mon, 23-Feb-87 08:34:07 EST
Article-I.D.: gatech.12621
Posted: Mon Feb 23 08:34:07 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 26-Feb-87 18:59:20 EST
References: <882@imagen.UUCP> <1073@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu> <1271@husc6.UUCP> <575@viper.UUCP>
Reply-To: spaf@gatech.UUCP (Gene Spafford)
Organization: Software Engineering Research Center (SERC), Georgia Tech
Lines: 34
Keywords: newsgroup,atari,st
Xref: utgpu news.groups:418 comp.sys.atari.st:1678
Summary: Say "no" to binary

If and when the network load gets to be too much (probably by the end
of July at the current rate), the first groups I'll cut here are
binary-only, or groups that carry mostly binary postings of programs.
There are a few reasons for that:

1) Binary isn't retargetable. A binary-only file is usable only on the
machine it was compiled for.  With source, at least, you can make
(usually minor) changes and recompile for a different machine.  No such
luck with binary.

2) Binary isn't adaptable.  If a program is posted which does something
useful, but I want to "tweek" it for my environment, I need the
source.

3) Binary isn't fixable.  If a bug crops up and a fix is made, the
entire binary file has to be reposted.  A source code patch can be
posted in much less space and with much less net-wide impact.

4) Binary isn't verifiable.  With all the crazies on the net, you
expect me to take some binary file posted to the net and install it on
*my* machine?  Hah!  I'm crazy, but I'm not *that* crazy!

There are also the usual problems with encoding method and size of
binary postings.

If you're going to start a group, I'd want source only.  If you create
both source and binary, it is probable that sometime before too long
we'd only carry the source group.

-- 
Gene Spafford
Software Engineering Research Center (SERC), Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet:	Spaf @ GATech		ARPA:	Spaf@gatech.EDU
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