dennis@rlgvax.UUCP (Dennis Bednar) (02/05/87)
Parden me, but:
Why is that most of the program submissions to this
newsgroup are in encoded form and not source?
If I had a mac, I personally would prefer source code
instead of object code.
Also, source form would probably be shorter than the
55K encoded object files I have seen posted.
--
FullName: Dennis Bednar
UUCP: {seismo|sundc}!rlgvax!dennis
USMail: CCI; 11490 Commerce Park Dr.; Reston VA 22091
Telephone: +1 703 648 3300chuq@plaid.UUCP (02/06/87)
>Why is that most of the program submissions to this >newsgroup are in encoded form and not source? >If I had a mac, I personally would prefer source code >instead of object code. Yeah, it's been about six months since we've had to answer this question... By saying "If I had a Mac, I'd..." you are really implying "If you distributed source, I could port it to MY machine [maybe...]." Which isn't a bad thing, frankly. The reason most stuff is not distributed with source is that most of the programs being distributed for the Mac are distributed by people who have decided to keep the source private. You can argue whether they SHOULD keep sources private all you want, but that is their perogative. Many of the programs are shareware, not public domain, and are considered to be commercial products by their authors. Also, most programs are developed by people NOT on this net and posted by volunteers, so trying to convince them otherwise isn't useful -- they can't hear you. >Also, source form would probably be shorter than the >55K encoded object files I have seen posted. In this case, VERY wrong. The 55K encoded object you saw probably translates into about 200K of source. My version of Mac-Hack doesn't fit oon an 800K floppy, but is about 200K of object. There is anywhere from a 4-1 to 8-1 compression between source and object. Also, source is only useful to someone who has that development environment or is willing to port, so to be generally useful source AND binary need to be posted, so there is no savings. So, the answer is: We post source when we have it, but source isn't available most of the time. chuq Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM It's only a model...
6063366@PUCC.BITNET (02/08/87)
They have separate groups for mod.mac.sources and mod.mac.binaries. Does
anyone know why there is no net.binaries.mac? I would think that this would
prove more convenient for people who are only interested in source or only
interested in object.
Carl Micarelli BITNET: 6063366@PUCC
UUCP: allegra!psuvax1!pucc.bitnet!6063366
USMAIL: 122 1903 Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544ns@gnome.cs.cmu.edu.UUCP (02/12/87)
Where is Binhex? The encoded binaries aren't too useful without it... --Nick