Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!jade!eris!mwm From: mwm@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Mike (My watch has windows) Meyer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Retraction - don't ARC (was Re: Jtime.arc Posting) Message-ID: <3087@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: Wed, 8-Apr-87 16:21:59 EST Article-I.D.: jade.3087 Posted: Wed Apr 8 16:21:59 1987 Date-Received: Mon, 13-Apr-87 05:37:27 EST References: <10423@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> <520@madvax.UUCP> Sender: usenet@jade.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: mwm@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Mike (My watch has windows) Meyer) Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica Lines: 58 In article <6261@ukma.ms.uky.csnet> sean@ms.uky.csnet (Sean Casey) writes: >In article <1968@hoptoad.uucp> farren@hoptoad.UUCP (Mike Farren) writes: >>I'm a believer now. Don't ARC binaries. Just uuencode them, and post that. Better yet, post sources! I don't run binaries off the net; I remember ARF. >That may result in a few saved bytes for Usenet, but it will inconvenience a >lot of users. ARC does two things: archiving and compressing. For those that >use xmodem, they must download sources one file at a time. With ARC, they >can do one transfer and get the whole mess. AND it insures that file padding >will not invalidate an executable binary. Wrong on two counts. ARC is a major pain in the ass, as it won't handle directory trees. Try getting the mg1b sources, arcing and downloading all of them. On the other hand, tar does handle trees, and you can find an AmigaDOS program to dismantle them on Fish disk 53. This allows you to download trees, as opposed to directories. And it works through xmodem, the same as ARC does. Ergo, posting uuencoded tar'ed binaries buys the receiver more convenience than uuencoded arc'ed, and doesn't cause the double-compression gotcha that arc does. >One must also consider that all sites do not send compressed news. You >would save time for these sites by using ARCed files. Such sites are foolish, and almost certainly aren't paying long-distance phone bills. Remember, it's not the time on the phone, it's the multi-thousand dollar phone bills. >It's really up to the poster what format he wants to use. If there's binaries, >or more that a couple of files, I'll probably arc sources. I've downloaded >tons of files, and that's the format I'd rather see them in. It also saves >time downloading from the Usenet host to my Amiga. Sigh. There was a time when being polite on the net was common. People tried to minimize the load on the sites paying for netnews, and to minimize the number of people who saw their articles and weren't interested in them (among other things), and a reminder when you did things that violated those was appreciated. Now, it's "I'll sell my car on both ba.wanted and ba.general; that'll reach more people" and "I'll post arc'ed files, that'll save me a little upload time" and "Who is this assh*le telling me not to crosspost to net.micro and net.micro.ibm-pc?" Maybe NNTP will save ABUSENet. Then again, maybe people not worried about "a few extra bytes" (kilobytes is more like it) will manage to bury it in spite of the net wizards best efforts.