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From: sbanner1@uvicctr.UUCP (S. John Banner)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: sending source code
Message-ID: <332@uvicctr.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 27-Oct-87 16:37:40 EST
Article-I.D.: uvicctr.332
Posted: Tue Oct 27 16:37:40 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 4-Nov-87 05:21:23 EST
References: <631@louie.udel.EDU>
Reply-To: sbanner1@uvicctr.UUCP (S. John Banner)
Organization: University of Victoria, Victoria B.C. Canada
Lines: 37

In article <631@louie.udel.EDU> BECKER%HUMBER.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu (Bruce Becker) writes:
>3). The problem decomposes into about 3 levels - a). archiving like "arc" or
>    "tar"; b). compression for efficiency; c). transmission media transparency.
>    So - use "tar" & "compress" to handle a). & b)., AND port "arc" to satisfy
>    the "BBS" world; c). is solved apprpriately to the transmission system -
>    x/y-modem, uuencode, etc. The problem with EBCDIC is not serious for
>    uuencoded files - a simple "ascii-to-Ebcdic" filter is required if not
>    already provided by the transmission services. Any translation
>    peculiarities are then resolved in the local version of uuencode/decode...
>4). The "gist" of what i'm saying is - please try to build on the existing
>    universe of utilities as much as you can - that way the "UNix-ness" is

>Cheers, BBecker    Humber College   Etobicoke, Ont.

I must agree with what you are saying, but might I suggest that instead
of using tar/compress/arc combinations, that we adopt the 'zoo' program
that was distributed on the net a few months ago.  It gives the utility
of tar (ie, archiving directory structures, etc), with the data
compression of arc (actually, in my experiance it tends to be slightly
worse than arc, but only by about 2-5 percent, and given the added
functionality, I think that that is well worth it), PLUS there are
currently versions available for quite a varietly of machines, AND THEY
ALL HAVE THE SAME INTERFACE.  I think that if we have to set some sort
of a standard for this (and I think that we will have do deal with this
problem sooner or later), the combination of zoo, and uuencode is
probably the way to go.

  Well, so much for my two cents, if you don't like it, feel free to
propose other solutions (preferably with reasons :-), I am open to
whatever will get the job done in the best manner for the most people.

                      S. John Banner

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