Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!Germany.EU.net!mcsun!uknet!doc.ic.ac.uk!agate!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!gatech!paladin.american.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!darwin.sura.net!wupost!gumby!destroyer!newsrelay.iastate.edu!news.iastate.edu!vincent1.iastate.edu!schweda
From: schweda@iastate.edu (Christopher Schweda)
Subject: Re: Policy for code postings (was: TADS Source for Continuous Substa
Message-ID: <schweda.735872562@vincent1.iastate.edu>
Sender: news@news.iastate.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
References: <)> <1rgmjfINNdje@life.ai.mit.edu> <1993Apr26.165349.29869@nomina.lu.se>) <1rhgfiINNqi8@life.ai.mit.edu>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1993 01:02:42 GMT
Lines: 36

Look, all this posting about 'formats' has got me mystified. Why all the
uproar? Why not just post the files and source and whatever else on ftp.gmd.de
in the formats that files and source and whatever else are posted on
any other ftp site?
 
I'm no expert, but it seems to me that Macintosh files are compressed and
binhexed. They appear as filename.hqx files on places such as sumex-aim
and umuch.mac.archive.edu. Seems pretty simple to me.
 
And MSDOS? Well, I figure they're always zipped or something and appear
as filename.z on ftp sites. That seems pretty simple, too.
 
And as for posting TADS source to this newsgroup, why not just go ahead
and post it as regular text, as if you're posting a regular article.
That way we r.a.i-f and r.g.i-f junkes can actually *see* the source
before we decide to save it and dowload it. And if the source is *huge*, if
it's some colossal text files, then (a) post a notice on r.a.i-f that the
file has been uploaded to ftp.gmd.de and *then* upload the file as a regular
text file.
 
Please no flames, I'm just making some suggestions. I'm not a computer
expert and don't know the difference between shar and uuencode and whatever
else I've been seeing in recent posts. All I know is that I've been
happily ftp'ing to my Macintosh for several years and have a bunch of
nifty programs that do all the requisite conversions.
 
But this machine specific binary stuff troubles me -- especially for those
of us who can easily download ASCII text but have a helluva time with
binary.
 
Does this make any sense whatsoever or have I just demonstrated my
fundamental ignorance regarding this most troublesome issue?
 
Chris Schweda
schweda@iastate.edu
===
