Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!inria!laas!nastassia!ralph
From: ralph@nastassia.laas.fr (Ralph-P. Sobek)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: CODE POSTING ON THE NET
Summary: There is more than USENET
Keywords: news, USENET, ARPA mailing-lists, BITNET
Message-ID: <382@laas.laas.fr>
Date: 12 Jun 89 13:18:31 GMT
References: <890606.08402734.007881@SFA.CP6> <21754@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Sender: news@laas.laas.fr
Reply-To: ralph@laas.laas.fr
Organization: LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, France
Lines: 41

In article <21754@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> stowe@silver.bacs.indiana.edu
(Fox in Sox, Fox in Box, etc.) writes:
|  In article <890606.08402734.007881@SFA.CP6> Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET (Z4648252) writes:
|   >    Probably because for half the netters here, it is impossible to
|   >either receive the files (I've requested from Canada several times
|   >and have yet to receive a file) due to the routing (comp.sources.atari.st
|   >is an "illegal syntax" for our system) or files that are received just
|   >don't decode right.
|  
|  Regardless of the problem or the size of the sources/executables,
|  this is still an inappropriate newsgroup for such postings.  You are
|  welcome to your opinion, however wrong it may be.
|  
|  [lot's of blank lines deleted :-)]

Well, the USENET news folks are forgetting something.  They are not
alone out there in World Net!!  Some people subscribe to ARPA mailing
lists, some to BITNET news/mailing servers.

Both of these services are gatewayed with the corresponding
newsgroups; just look in news.lists about mailing lists.  For the
people on these alternate networks, this is the only means to
communicate source/binary code.  And it is perfectly correct.  Not to
mention the concomitant problem of finding accessible archive servers,
etc. 

I believe that a solution is impossible.  It would require separation
automatically at the gateway (normally at UCB) such that messages
would be equally visible on each side of the gateway, and code would
be side-lined to the appropriate moderator (easy for comp.*.atari.st)
for posting.

Before getting news installed locally, I spent 2 years on this
alternate network.  Therefore I can sympathize with those people!

Let's hope that Steven Grimm archives the occasional posting of code, here.

Ralph P. Sobek			  Disclaimer: The above ruminations are my own.
ralph@laas.laas.fr			   Addresses are ordered by importance.
ralph@laas.uucp, or ...!uunet!mcvax!laas!ralph		If all else fails, try:
SOBEK@FRMOP11.BITNET				      sobek@eclair.Berkeley.EDU