Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!amdahl!dlb!plx!slvblc!dick
From: dick@slvblc.UUCP (Dick Flanagan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: comp.binaries.ibm.pc moderation suggestions
Message-ID: <1195@slvblc.UUCP>
Date: 18 Mar 88 20:09:00 GMT
References: <1323@lznv.ATT.COM>
Sender: uupc@slvblc.UUCP
Reply-To: slvblc!dick@ucscc.UCSC.EDU (Dick Flanagan)
Organization: SLV Systems Group, Ben Lomond, California
Lines: 43
Disclaimer: none


In article <1323@lznv.ATT.COM> psc@lznv.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm) writes:
> All text files (READ.MEs, .DOCs, and any source) should *NOT* be ARCed
> and uuencoded.  They should be bundled together in some other manner
> (such as shell archives), and posted in Ascii.  There are two reasons:

Not all Usenet sites are unix sites where shell archives are practical.
You ought to try breaking apart a shell archive sometime with a line
editor.  It gives new meaning to the word "tedious."

> (1)  Obviously enough, if the first part of a program posting is the
> READ.ME or the program's documentation, it'll be much easier for a news
> reader to decide if the program's worth downloading.  It's a real
> nuisance to uudecode, download, and ARC/PKXARC ten thousand bytes, just
> to discover an neat sounding program doesn't do anything you're
> interested in.

A short READ.ME or man page would be fine, but the documentation could
also be de-ARCed on the host before deciding to download it.

> (2)  Netnews is data compressed when it moves from site to site.  I
> seem to remember an experiment where someone compared sending an Ascii
> file, as compared with ARCing the file (compressing it into binary),
> uuencoding it (expanding it into printable Ascii), and then sending it.
> Simply sending the original required less transmission between news
> nodes.

I seem to remember counter-experiments where the opposite was shown.  (I
know; there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.)  Besides, not all sites
send and received compressed news data.  I know this site doesn't and that
phone bill comes out of my pocket!

> ARC and the uucode programs offer some checksum capabilities, and we'd
> lose those by transmitting straight Ascii.  But who cares if a document
> loses or gains a byte?

I do if that document is source code!

Dick

--
Dick Flanagan, W6OLD                         GEnie: FLANAGAN
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