Date   : Wed, 14 Feb 1990 01:22:12 GMT
From   : attctc!usource!daveg@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Dave Goodman)
Subject: binary/source postings

I am posting the following for David Goodenough <dg@lakart.uucp>, who is 
temporarily unable to post to this group.  Replies to him, please.

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Subject: binary/source postings
Newsgroups: comp.os.cpm

anasaz!chad (Chad Larson) says:
> A couple of years ago, I posted to this group the source to a utility
> I wrote.  I was beaten up rather roughly for having done so.  My
> recollection is that this group was gatewayed onto the Internet
> somehow and that someone there had a restriction on source and/or
> binaries floating by.  They threatened (or were required, I forget) to
> break the gateway rather than allow programs to transit their systems.
>
> Is this still so?  Are binaries or source postings discouraged (or
> worse, punished)?  Is this group constrained to be discussions of old
> systems and mutual help in supporting them?

This is somewhat the case. Although my true identity is dg@lakart.UUCP,
I get this via the Internet mailing list INFO-CPM. Even though I would
love to see binaries and source posted here, I have to agree with the
Internet people that limits need to be placed: lakart.UUCP is now a CP/M
machine, and I don't have infinite space on my spool drive (D:) which
is where my mail hangs out.

On the other side of the coin, I would agree that a mechanism for posting
source and binaries would be useful (I'd kill for the opportunity to post
QTERM V4.2g - it's now available.....), but I'd suggest that a (possibly
moderated) newsgroup comp.os.cpm.programs would be needed. I purposely
didn't say comp.os.cpm.sources or comp.os.cpm.binaries, since I believe
that the most benefit would come from a newsgroup devoted to both. Your
mission (should you chose to accept it) is to run the discussion, and the
vote, and see if comp.os.cpm.programs can get created.

I would, however, add the following: Keith Petersen (in a reply to the above
posting by Chad Larson) says:

> There is an excellent public domain archive at SIMTEL20 which is
> accessable by all readers of this newsgroup.  The problem is that for
> the past two years there has only been ONE reader who has sent a
> program contribution to the archives.  I can't do it all myself.

WRONG!!!!! - it is only by a miracle of UUCP <--> Internet and
Internet <--> Bitnet gatewaying that I can get stuff from SIMTEL20.
Keith, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE remember that many .UUCP sites _CAN'T_ FTP,
and thus are cut off from SIMTEL20. I'm able to access the BITNET
server at NDSUVM1, but even that's flakey at best: about 20 to 30% of
requests I send wind up in the bit bucket somewhere.

The day I'm able to hook lakart.UUCP (as it is now - pallio.UUCP
originally) to the Intenet, and issue a FTP request will probably go
down in history along with the day Eniac was first powered up: there
is only so much a 4MHz Z80A can do :-)

-- 
       dg@lakart.UUCP - David Goodenough               +---+
                                               IHS     | +-+-+
       ..... !harvard!xait!lakart!dg                   +-+-+ |
AKA:   dg%lakart.uucp@xait.xerox.com                     +---+