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From: WOLF@BBNG (Jerry Wolf)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: VI in TPU part 14/14 (AND ALL SUCH SUBMISSIONS!)
Message-ID: <[G.BBN.COM].2-Nov-87.11:17:01.WOLF>
Date: Mon, 2-Nov-87 11:17:00 EST
Article-I.D.: <[G.BBN.COM].2-Nov-87.11:17:01.WOLF>
Posted: Mon Nov  2 11:17:00 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Nov-87 18:59:32 EST
References: <1787@chinet.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
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Last week I sent out a message that began:
>	I would like to protest the distribution to the entire INFO-VAX
>	list of LARGE program sources such as the recent "VI in TPU" that
>	hit our machine this past weekend.

Let me be more specific (and perhaps take back the word "protest" in
favor of "suggesting otherwise"). I don't wish to inhibit sharing
software on IFNO_VAX or anywhere else, and my complaint/suggestion has
nothing to do with the QUALITY of programs that are submitted group-wide,
just the SIZE, as I believe I pointed out.  Those giant messages,
arriving unbidden, darn near ran me out of disk quota (and would have,
had I not happened to log in on the weekend and delete them in time).
Who knows what havoc they wreaked to other hapless recipients?

My suggestion is merely that authors of LARGE things they wish to
share send a message to all to the effect that"
  "I have a neat program that does X.  It is written in Y, and
  it requires system resources Z.  It is about W kilocharacters
  long.  If you're interested in receiving it, reply to me."
I WOULD appreciate receiving such messages and replying to receive
those programs that look useful to our system or even just interesting
to me.  That way, everybody
gets a chance to see what's being offered for sharing and the data
gets transmitted only to those who want/need it.  Doesn't seem to me
there's a need for a separate sources group.

OK, my suggestion
does embody a size threshold -- i.e., when is a submission small
enough to submit to the entire group?  I don't have any
strong opinions about this; I'd be happy simply having submitters
just ask themselves that question before going ahead and sending
the whole shebang.  Perhaps if it's too big to send in one message,
you should ask first?

Cheers,
  Jerry Wolf
  BBN Laboratories Incorporated