michaelk@copper.TEK.COM (Michael D. Kersenbrock) (05/24/88)
Background: I am a person on the Usenet side of things, and I have
contributed a goodly number of programs (all high quality
of course :-) ) to simtel20 by emailing them to Keith P.
In fact, I've just got working a CP/M-80 version of
"uncompress" that decompresses files compressed with
the Unix "COMPRESS" program (with 16-bit compress!).
I'm currently working on assembly-language speedups for it.
I've got a couple other programs that I already finished
but haven't gotten around to distributing them yet.
PROBLEM:
=======
a) People want to post and receive CP/M program source and binaries.
b) This if fine for those on the "Usenet" side of this newsgroup.
c) This is "forbidden" on the ARPA side of the newsnet gateway.
d) Nothing is posted to usenet side to keep the ARPA side happy.
e) The ARPA side has ftp access to SIMTEL20, the USENET side does
not. Files of things I would normally post to this net
(like other computer groups) get mailed "to" the Simtel20
archive. In other words: the usenet side of this newsnet
gives up program/source availablity in order to keep the
ARPA gateway. Why this is a good deal for the USENETers is
not clear.
SOLUTIONS:
=========
a) Mail-server on Simtel20 that gives usenet folk access to
simtel20 archives.
This was tried but turned off due to excess burden of the
simtel20 machine.
Maybe it could be viable if the server could access ONLY
CP/M archives. When it was last up, you could access
ALL archives, and other news groups "heard about it" and
were using it for everything. Even the IBM pc group that
has it's own binary and source groups!
b) A new USENET group for binaries and sources:
comp.os.cpm.sources
(and allow both binaries and sources).
This new group would NOT be gatewayed the the ARPA world.
c) Have the gatewaying program (?) look for a keyword in the
subject line (like: _PROGRAM_) and NOT pass any that
have that keyword in it.
Then, require that keyword to be included in all program
postings.
d) Drop the connection between the USENET side and the
ARPA side. This probably would be a net-gain for the
Usenet side even if not optimum.
--
Mike Kersenbrock
Tektronix Microcomputer Development Products
Aloha, OregonWANCHO@SIMTEL20.ARPA ("Frank J. Wancho") (05/26/88)
a) Mail-server on Simtel20 that gives usenet folk access to simtel20 archives. This was tried but turned off due to excess burden of the simtel20 machine. That's part of the story. The other part was that the server was overburdening the network resources and the intermediate hosts relaying the mail files. Toward the end, the output volume probably exceeded the combined total of all the other hosts on the net. b) A new USENET group for binaries and sources: comp.os.cpm.sources (and allow both binaries and sources). This new group would NOT be gatewayed the the ARPA world. This is probably the best overall solution, provided that Keith is able to subscribe somehow. Bear in mind that the original reason for starting our archives in the first place was, and still is, to shift the load off the mail systems. --Frank
rolf@warwick.UUCP (Rolf Howarth) (06/02/88)
In article <2038@copper.TEK.COM> michaelk@copper.UUCP (Michael D. Kersenbrock) writes: >PROBLEM: >======= > a) People want to post and receive CP/M program source and binaries. > b) This if fine for those on the "Usenet" side of this newsgroup. > c) This is "forbidden" on the ARPA side of the newsnet gateway. > d) Nothing is posted to usenet side to keep the ARPA side happy. > e) The ARPA side has ftp access to SIMTEL20, the USENET side does > not. > ... >SOLUTIONS: >========= > ... > b) A new USENET group for binaries and sources: > comp.os.cpm.sources > (and allow both binaries and sources). > This new group would NOT be gatewayed the the ARPA world. Hear here. This seems to be far and away the best solution. If sources are posted to usenet and available from simtel20 on arpa, surely that should keep everyone happy? Shutting down the gateway seems rather drastic and unecessary, as it does operate quite satisfactorily for discussions. The suggestion to put a header like "_PROGRAM_" in the subject field and filter such articles out at the gateway would be very difficult to enforce. At the moment I (and doubtless many other Usenetters) have absolutely no access to CPM programs, which is mildly irritating. Requests by mail for response from servers such as simtel20 always fail somewhere along the line. Will somebody formally propose a new group comp.os.cpm.sources then? It's not clear whether it would be best to have it moderated or unmoderated. Perhaps it should be moderated if the volume is likely to be high, to ensure it gets propagated to Europe. Any volunteers? (US usenetters complaining that people on Internet mailing lists don't appreciate they're only part of "the" net note: the same applies to them - Europe is part of the net too!) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rolf Howarth, Tel: +44 203 523523 ext.2485 Dept. of Computer Science, JANET: rolf@uk.ac.warwick.flame University of Warwick, ARPA: rolf@flame.warwick.ac.uk Coventry, CV4 7AL, England. UUCP: {uunet,mcvax}!ukc!warwick!rolf -------------------------------------------------------------------------