Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!purdue!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!ndsuvax!ncoverby
From: ncoverby@ndsuvax.UUCP (Glen Overby)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Problems with minix stuff from BITNET
Summary: FIX your network
Message-ID: <1604@ndsuvax.UUCP>
Date: 20 Oct 88 06:11:32 GMT
References: <4951@louie.udel.EDU>
Reply-To: ncoverby@ndsuvax.UUCP (Glen Overby)
Organization: Silo Tech, Fargo ND  USA
Lines: 38

In article <4951@louie.udel.EDU> KYY%NIHCUDEC.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (M.
DOBSON) writes:

> [Wonderful Bitnet horror story deleted]

Bitnet sure has a reputation.  If you're not doing something IBMish on
there, it's an up-hill battle.  I've always had major problems with sources
sent over Bitnet have always been a problem for me.  There is no coherent
translation between ASCII and EBCDIC, nor is there apparently any coherency
within the EBCDIC world itself!

Back when the 1.1-1.2 stuff was released, I convinced our VM system
programmer here at NDSU to give me some space on his LISTSERV so I could
make Minix sources available there for archival purposes.  One thing I have
tried to do with that archive is make all the sources usable by people on
bitnet; for example, the tabs are NOT expanded and will hopefully get to you
that way.  I suggest getting the updates from here and see if they work out
better for you (info on this server is in the Minix Info Sheet).  I wouldn't
mind hearing from a few people about how this is actually working out.

I don't know where your ^E's came from, but you can probably solve your
patch spaces problem by running patch with the "-l" option (maybe you
are; it wasn't clear to me).

>Any suggestions for dealing with this (other than getting on uesnet :-))
>would be appreciated.

Get on Usenet :-) Or, more generally, get on a Non-Bitnet machine (the
internet would work fine).  There are a lot of public-access Unix systems
around which will let you on for little or no charge (aside from calling
into them).  If you consider your time worth money, it might be cheaper to 
wait and get the upgrade package from Prentice-Hall whenever it comes out.

To steal a line from John Gilmore,  Good Luck, and may the source be with you!
-- 
Glen Overby
ncoverby@plains.nodak.edu	uunet!ndsuvax!ncoverby
ncoverby@ndsuvax (Bitnet)