Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!hc!beta!unm-la!unmvax!charon!cscbrkac
From: cscbrkac@charon.unm.edu (Lazlo Nibble)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Posting Binaries vs. Sources
Message-ID: <3116@charon.unm.edu>
Date: 19 May 88 02:15:06 GMT
Reply-To: cscbrkac@unmc.UUCP (Lazlo Nibble)
Organization: Studio Nibble -- One Tree Hill, New Mexico
Lines: 40

If those of you who are arguing that "Binaries are for weenies" (--klee@daisy)
would look a little past the Unix boxes on your desks and think about what
you're arguing for, you'd realize that -- for PCs at least -- this argument is
ridiculous.

Sure, YOUR systems come with compilers or assemblers that are reasonably
standardized.  Pull something off comp.sources.unix and you can be reasonably
sure that you've got the tools at hand to make the thing work on your machine.
Hell, you HAVE to have the sources in most cases -- there's enough hardware and
software differences out there that posted executables in the Unix groups would
be virtually useless.

But the rest of the world?  Come on.  Why should I have to buy an assembler or
a compiler to use Davex or some other utility of the type that comes over
c.b.apple2?  A lot (I think it's probably safe to say "most") of the stuff
that's coming across in the binaries groups now is stuff for which the sources
aren't even legitimately available, and even if the sources WERE available,
it wouldn't make much difference for most of us.  There's just plain not enough
differences between one Apple II and another to make source-posting NECESSARY
to get something working on my machine.

If you want to argue against *all* code-releated newsgroups for PCs on the net,
I'm not going to fight you.  I don't see much need for them either -- that's
what local BBSes are for, after all.  (Though I *do* read c.b.apple2, since
things get there quicker and in more variety than the piss-poor local Apple II
PD boards seem capable of.)  But arguing for source postings *instead 
of* binary postings is ludicrous where low-end PCs are concerned.  I was under
the impression that the idea behind these groups was to provide quick
distribution for widely-useful public-domain or shareware utilities that people
could just pull off the net and use.  That would become difficult if not
impossible if the binaries groups became source-only groups.

By the way, Ken, I don't think I'm a "weenie" just because I don't have or care
to spend the money on an assembler or compiler for my PC that I'll never use. 
This net ISN'T just for Unix users, and I think your implication that those of
us who don't make a living of Unix hacking (yet) don't belong here is pretty
obnoxious.  If you don't like the binaries groups, there's nothing forcing your
site to carry them.

-- 
Lazlo Nibble (cscbrkac@charon.unm.edu)