Date   : Mon, 19 Sep 1988 09:53:38 EDT
From   : Don Malpass <malpass@ll-vlsi.arpa>
Subject: New public domain archiving system development

       How lucky we all are.  It's to be all things to all people,
will probably be available tomorrow, and never have to go
beyond Version 1.0000 because it will obviously have no bugs.
       Look folks, as has been pointed out here by many people, this
flap and all this BS started long before there was even TALK of any law
suit, because the issue was
      >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> INCOMPATIBILITY <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
with a format that was in such widespread use that it had, with good
reason, become a de facto standard.  Unlike those who did a service by
providing compatible but faster "products", PK had the lousy judgement
to try to change the format rather than introduce a new standard to the
world.  The code, even with the initial bugs, was fast enough to
generate a following, and now we are all paying the price.
       There is NOTHING WRONG with all the .arc files out there except
that tools may not have been provided [on UNIX, for example] for
unpacking a few of the recent incompatible ones.  SO LET'S NOT PUT
OURSELVES THROUGH ADDITIONAL SUFFERING BY CHANGING ALL THOSE FILES.
Leave them alone, and when ALL the tools exist start adding new
non-.arc files in the new format.  From the number and length of the
wish-lists floating around that'll be a long time unless we want a
slap-dash job that pleases almost nobody.  It will be much better if we
allow the time for this project to be done professionally and not
embrace it until the community is generally pleased with the results.
Meanwhile, let's not continue to cut off our collective noses to spite
our faces.  The number of hours we're all pissing away reading this
continuing blurb-warfare could be better spent doing what we're being
paid to do.
---
Don Malpass   [malpass@LL-vlsi.arpa],  [malpass@spenser.ll.mit.edu] 
  My opinions are seldom shared by MIT Lincoln Lab, my actual
    employer RCA (known recently as GE), or my wife.