[net.micro.amiga] mod.amiga.binaries

lwall@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Larry Wall) (09/11/86)

Am I imagining things, or is nothing happening in mod.amiga.binaries?
I'd sure like to see the executables of vt100 2.0 and emacs 3.7.  No, I
don't have a C compiler yet.  I'm waiting for the new version of Aztec, which
is waiting for the official 1.2 release...  I'm also waiting for my house
to get refinanced, so at the moment I'm provisionally poor.

Of course, if you don't want to give me anything because you don't think I
believe in public domain software, you're entitled to your humble opinion.  :-)

Hmm, maybe somebody upstream from us is squelching *.binaries.  On the other
hand, sdcrdcf is supposedly a backbone site, which means we ARE upstream.

Whatever.  Just thought I'd stir the ant nest a little.

Larry Wall
sdcrdcf!lwall

doc@j.cc.purdue.edu (Craig Norborg) (09/13/86)

In article <3002@sdcrdcf.UUCP> lwall@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Larry Wall) writes:
>Am I imagining things, or is nothing happening in mod.amiga.binaries?
>I'd sure like to see the executables of vt100 2.0 and emacs 3.7.  No, I
>don't have a C compiler yet.  I'm waiting for the new version of Aztec, which
>is waiting for the official 1.2 release...  I'm also waiting for my house
>to get refinanced, so at the moment I'm provisionally poor.
>
    Well Larry, you just brought up a good point.  Not much traffic has
been going on, just for the fact that I haven't really found a great
way to post to these.  One major problem arises when one has to
download binaries to the Amiga, they somehow end up being too long and
need to be truncated.  This is one thing I would love to avoid.  There
is a program that runs on both Unix and the Amiga called ARC that would
solve the problem in that it both compresses files and stores them in a
"tar"ish format which when run on the amiga lets files end up the right
size.
    Now is where it gets complicated.  There is a version of ARC out on
the Amiga, but the guy who released it only released binaries, and he
"booby- trapped" them so that after certain dates it doesn't work.  I
am sorry, but I don't like this attitude with software that was
released into the public domain on both Unix and the IBM-PC (which BTW,
these versions ARE compatible with the Amiga version!)  I am in the
process of trying to port it to the Amiga myself, but haven't had much
time since school started.  I guess the question would be, does anyone
out there have a good method to post binaries to this group so they
will end up OK on the other end, without having to truncate them or
whatever?  Does someone have ARC source converted to the Amiga?  If
not, what would be the best way to post things according to all of you?
    I would appreciate any mail replies you may have!

	Craig Norborg
	mod.amiga.{sources&binaries} moderator
	ihnp4!pur-ee!j.cc.purdue.edu!doc

hamilton@uiucuxc.CSO.UIUC.EDU (09/14/86)

>Am I imagining things, or is nothing happening in mod.amiga.binaries?
>I'd sure like to see the executables of vt100 2.0 and emacs 3.7.  No, I
>don't have a C compiler yet.  I'm waiting for the new version of Aztec, which
>is waiting for the official 1.2 release...  I'm also waiting for my house
>to get refinanced, so at the moment I'm provisionally poor.
>
>Of course, if you don't want to give me anything because you don't think I
>believe in public domain software, you're entitled to your humble opinion.  :-)

well, if you're willing to spend your own dime (you are clearly willing to
spend the backbone's) you can download lots of binaries from BBS's.

	wayne hamilton
	U of Il and US Army Corps of Engineers CERL
UUCP:	{ihnp4,pur-ee,convex}!uiucdcs!uiucuxc!hamilton
ARPA:	hamilton%uiucuxc@a.cs.uiuc.edu	USMail:	Box 476, Urbana, IL 61801
CSNET:	hamilton%uiucuxc@uiuc.csnet	Phone:	(217)333-8703
CIS:    [73047,544]			PLink: w hamilton

bliv@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU (Jim "Bliv" Haleblian) (09/14/86)

	There do exist non-timestamped versions of ARC.  It seems to me
that the original idea of the time stamp was to allow for "pre-release"
versions to be available for use.  It's done now (I have a copy that hasn't euntered
a time stamp).  The truncator does exist, too (I don't have a copy, since
my kermit dies through MIT-EE, so it's useless to me).  I grabbed my copies
off the Window BBS (617) 868 1430.

				G'day!

				Jim H.

hamilton@uiucuxc.CSO.UIUC.EDU (09/15/86)

>There
>is a program that runs on both Unix and the Amiga called ARC that would
>solve the problem in that it both compresses files and stores them in a
>"tar"ish format which when run on the amiga lets files end up the right
>size.
>    Now is where it gets complicated.  There is a version of ARC out on
>the Amiga, but the guy who released it only released binaries, and he
>"booby- trapped" them so that after certain dates it doesn't work.  I
>am sorry, but I don't like this attitude with software that was
>released into the public domain on both Unix and the IBM-PC (which BTW,
>these versions ARE compatible with the Amiga version!)

    arc was not "booby-trapped"; what you saw were preliminary versions,
and the author wanted to make sure people didn't continue using old
(presumably buggy) versions after the "final" version was released.
(i bet ibm software developers wish there were such "boobytrap"s in old
versions of ms-dos).  version 0.16, which has been out for months now,
has the timeout removed.  even when it was in, you could defeat it by
changing the DOS date.

>I guess the question would be, does anyone
>out there have a good method to post binaries to this group so they
>will end up OK on the other end, without having to truncate them or
>whatever?  Does someone have ARC source converted to the Amiga?  If
>not, what would be the best way to post things according to all of you?

    didn't someone post an amiga uudecode a while back?  i know there
are PD versions of it available.

	wayne hamilton
	U of Il and US Army Corps of Engineers CERL
UUCP:	{ihnp4,pur-ee,convex}!uiucdcs!uiucuxc!hamilton
ARPA:	hamilton%uiucuxc@a.cs.uiuc.edu	USMail:	Box 476, Urbana, IL 61801
CSNET:	hamilton%uiucuxc@uiuc.csnet	Phone:	(217)333-8703
CIS:    [73047,544]			PLink: w hamilton

danny@convex.UUCP (09/15/86)

==I:-)=--   [ Would the lineater munch on Uncle Sam? ]

Wrongo.  The new arc  (arc16) has no timestamp.  The best way to do conversion
is to ARC the files together then use ATOB and BTOA (supplied on fisk disk #6
with documentation that says Unix System V (local)  hmmm) so that everything
works out just fine.  Just give 'em ATOB and BTOA source, post ARC16 binary
made into ascii, and be reel sure to post the real file size so you can
post CHOP.BAS and everybody will be able to get a running ARC16.  For those
hopeless soles without compilers, you could simply have them buy the fish disk.
A fairly simple operation.  Two programs.  Kinda like Macintosh BinHex (has
anybody thought of porting that sonofabeetch?  )
After you got people with a running ATOB and BTOA and ARC16, they just download
the ascii'ed binary.  Chop appropriately or edit or whatever.  ATOB it, then
run thru ARC16.  Piece of cake.  We could also do some stuff with uuencode
but I don't have a ghost of an idea just exactly what it is/what it does...

Ok?
Dan Wallach
...!ihnp4!convex!danny

chapman@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Brent Chapman) (09/17/86)

In article <2050@j.cc.purdue.edu> doc@j.cc.purdue.edu.UUCP (Craig Norborg) writes:
>I guess the question would be, does anyone
>out there have a good method to post binaries to this group so they
>will end up OK on the other end, without having to truncate them or
>whatever?  Does someone have ARC source converted to the Amiga?  If
>not, what would be the best way to post things according to all of you?

Why not, at least in the interim, just use uuencode/uudecode the binaries?
You have to do this to the ARC files, anyway, before sending them.  The
main things that ARC does are to concentrate a whole directory structure
into one file, and to compress that file.  I'd say, for now, to just toss
out the ARC/de-ARC step of packing/unpacking.  

Please choose some interim solution soon, however; don't force people to
wait on some "Well, I'll get around to it someday, and then I'll start
posting binaries" solution.  We appreciate your effort, but getting the
binaries out in the first place is more important than HOW you get them
out (as long as it's something most people can cope with, anyway).


Thanks!

Brent
--

Brent Chapman

chapman@cory.berkeley.edu	or	ucbvax!cory!chapman

john13@garfield.UUCP (09/18/86)

[]

Concerning the recent postings about the best format for mod.amiga.binaries:
please, oh please, please no more ARC'ed files! Did you ever spend an hour
downloading ARC'ed files only to discover that your version of ARC wasn't
late enough? No? I have. Not fun. Could some kind soul make available to me
the fixed (ie does spacing right) Epson printer driver (or Panasonic if it's
out there) by E-mail? Catching a plane to the "major centers" just to pick
it up seems a little uneconomical. Ditto with any BBS's...long distance
charges would be astronomical, and chances are the files would all be
ARC'ed anyway.

At least a uuencoded binary can be decoded, xmodemed, and run by anybody.
Using ARC might save some *local* phone time, but make it impossible for
those of us "out in the sticks" to benefit.

John "Mr. Isolated" Russell
UUCP:	{akgua,allegra,cbosgd,ihnp4,utcsri}!garfield!john13
CDNNET:	john13@garfield.mun.cdn