Date   : Thu, 07 Aug 1986 11:06:43-EDT
From   : prindle@nadc.ARPA
Subject: re: Posting software

What is distasteful about posting software to the list are all the negatives
that Dave mentioned plus:

Software ends up being "kept" in two places and in two different forms.  Thus
DDN users (who may have just joined the group and haven't received previous
mail) must not only "look" at the CP/M,CPMUG,and SIGM directories on SIMTEL
where software is stored in it's natural form (files), but must also "look"
for more software embedded throughout the mail archives.  One cannot, un-
fortunately, even if he knew the subject line or date of a pertinent mailing
which contained software, ftp a single mail item from the mail archives, but
must retrieve a whole year's mail and then edit through it to separate out
the software of interest.  Also, this form of storage is very inefficient:
instead of taking up less space than the original file (i.e. by using sq, lu,
or arc), software ends up taking much *more* space than the original file
because it's encoded.  In other words, though there may be reasons to do
it for the non-DDN community, it is clearly detrimental to the DDN side.

Sincerely,
Frank Prindle
Prindle@NADC.arpa