Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ames!nrl-cmf!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!chinet!les From: les@chinet.UUCP (Leslie Mikesell) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: SIMTEL20 to ban ARC files Message-ID: <6593@chinet.UUCP> Date: 15 Sep 88 03:46:01 GMT References: <12594@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> <8476@smoke.ARPA> <3944@bsu-cs.UUCP> Reply-To: les@chinet.UUCP (Leslie Mikesell) Organization: Chinet - Public Access Unix Lines: 37 In article <3944@bsu-cs.UUCP> dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) writes: >>How can we reason that we should use ZOO as the new standard when the >>latest is *not* public domain? >Keith, zoo the archiver itself may not be, but the archive format is. >Let's assume the new public domain standard that you mentioned has come >into being. Both the format and the source code are in the public >domain. Now suppose somebody takes the source code, adds great >speed and some new features that a lot of people want, and distributes >the result as a copyrighted program *without source*, just for MS-DOS. Since we are supposing, why not suppose instead that people will ignore the copyrighted binary since they can't count on everyone having it. Now everyone loses out on those nifty features. Anyway "great speed" would probably come from scrapping the source code and working in assembly. >You've lost control. Any other extensions you now make to the public >domain format will likely be incompatible with the extensions already >made in the format used by this new binary-only program. Or suppose someone takes your now public-domain file format and produces a product with useful extensions (say, multi-part mailable output or maintaining links where supported by the OS, or new compression methods) without using your source code. It would just take more effort (and thus make it less likely that anyone will have the benefits of these additions). >... If somebody is unwilling to >do even one of these three, how much trouble do you expect me to go to >on his behalf? As long as there are any restrictions on distribution zoo is unlikely to become a real standard especially in light of the arc fiasco. Of course you don't owe anyone a free program but it is good and I would like to see it extended, not restricted. Les Mikesell