Date   : Sat, 09 Aug 1986 15:08:00 EST
From   : RLH <HAAR%RCSMPA%gmr.com@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>
Subject: posting software to the net

I would like to encourage some kind of posting of software in addition
to the archives at SIMTEL20. As one the the low-class non-DDN people, I
feel the frustration that has been expressed by others when I see glowing
descriptions of some new public-domain software that sounds useful only
to find out that the only way to get it is thru FTP on ARPANET. Ther are
some excellent nearby RCP/M bulletin board systems that I use, but not all
the stuff I want shows up there.

WE do have to be careful about this, however. From my perspective, the
phone charges are insignificant, but other restrictions would prohibit
indiscriminant whole-sale mailing of software. I do have mass storage
limitations that could easily be exceded if tons of software poured in
while I was away on vacation. Since our local CSNET software is the
store-and-forward variety, it would interprete disk quota problems as
an incomplete delivery and re-try every hour, generating MANY error
messages to the system administrator along the way. You can imagine
that this might cause unfriendly feelings. Other people do have
problems with the telephone charges, and would not want to get large
volumes of unwanted software.

AT the same time, I am greatly in favor of distributing source code.
I have no sympathy for the argument that says "please send executables
only since I have only a BASIC interpreter." I have a least one compiler
for all the major languages (C, PASCAL, FORTRAN, BASIC) as well as
several assemblers and interpreters. Of course my BDS-C compiler is
would force me to modify code intended for MIX-C or C-80 or XYZ-C
compilers, but that's the way it goes. AT least I have a chance to
do so. If I get executable or object code, there is no reasonable
way for me to modify it for the particulars of my machine. Besides,
I like to look at the source code to get ideas and learn new techniques.
I believe that most CP/M enthusiasts (as opposed to users) would agree.

My idea of the optimum situation would be one in which announcements
of new software would be distributed thru INFO-CPM and have the source
code accessable somewhere via a mail request. The when I see something
interesting, I could send off a mail message asking to have the source
code mailed to me. I don't think it is reasonable to expect the originator
of the software to do this. Often it is quite dificult to figure out
mail return addresses that come from some other net, even given the
mail header info and what the person thinks is his return address. I know
that I would be less than excited about mailing out hundreds of messages
to unknown people if I had to spend a number of minutes deciphering
addresses and dealing with an uncooperative mail system. The ideal system
would be to have an mail server installed in a central site that
would accept requests for source code and automatically send the request
source via return mail. I think that the major impediment is getting
software to implement such a server - or does this kind of thing already
exist somewhere?

Second best would be having a seperate mailing list (maybe info-cpm-sources)
send out to a subset of the INFO-CPM mail list. Individuals would have to
request to be on the source mailing list. We would get some software
that we weren't interested in, but people who don't want it at all would
not be bothered by it.

I guess all this verbage boils down to:

        1) distribute source code, not object code

        2) have a seperate, parallel mail list for the sources

        3) myabe try to develope an automatic server

thanks for listening to (reading) me.


Bob Haar        ( HAAR.GMR@CSNET-RELAY.COM )
G.M. Research Labs