Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!ncar!gatech!utkcs2!moore From: moore@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu (Keith Moore) Newsgroups: comp.sources.d Subject: Re: Call for discussion: comp.sources.archives Message-ID: <480@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu> Date: 25 Aug 88 02:22:42 GMT References: <222@pigs.UUCP> <6031@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> <236@pigs.UUCP> <478@c10sd1.StPaul.NCR> <362@pigs.UUCP> <389@snjsn1.SJ.ATE.SLB.COM> <12292@ncoast.UUCP> Reply-To: moore@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu (Keith Moore) Organization: CS Dept - U of TN, Knoxville Lines: 25 This discussion has reminded me of something that I feel is badly needed in the Internet community and perhaps in the UUCP world as well - a distributed database containing information on source code availability. If this newsgroup is set up, (and I think it's a good idea), I'd like to see submissions put into some simple kind of format that could be read by computers as well as humans. The news articles could then automatically be fed into a database update program at sites that wished to track this information. Of course, the programs to maintain the database should be widely available and portable. Even something as simple as shell scripts using cdiff on the sending end and patch on the receiving end would be very useful. Sending diffs to the database instead of sending complete lists should also minimize the net traffic caused by the proposed newsgroup. Given the unreliable nature of Usenet as a whole, however, it seems like a good idea to provide also some protection against the occasional lost article. I hope that the net can devise a way to do this simply and effectively enough to encourage its use. -- Keith Moore UT Computer Science Dept. Internet/CSnet: moore@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu 107 Ayres Hall, UT Campus BITNET: moore@utkcs1 Knoxville Tennessee 37996-1301 Telephone: +1 615 974 0822