pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann) (07/02/88)
In article <708@amelia.nas.nasa.gov> msf@prandtl (Michael S. Fischbein) writes: >I just wanted to remind a few of the people carrying on about the mahjongg >posting about WHY the source to the tiles was posted, to prevent irrelevant >(to the mahjongg posting) disputes like this: >[it was to prove that the .o file contained no viruses] Well, please don't be *too* defensive about it. But I guarantee that there were plenty of better ways to prove it. I suggested a simple one in an earlier article: Post the graphic data in uuencoded binary form. Also post source code for a program that will decode the data. Or simply post information about the binary data format. It would also be relatively easy to show that a data-only .o file contains no linkable subroutines. Wouldn't the nm command be enough? This is silly! If we of the net are reduced to posting megabytes of 'source' code in order to prove that 66K of binary bitmap data is not a virus.... well, we are in worse shape than I thought. In my opinion, rather than acceding to the wishes of the people who complained to you, it would have been better to ask the complainers to come up with a better way of proving your good intentions. What's done is done, and isn't worth crying about. I sure hope the lesson is learned by others! Pete -- OOO __| ___ Peter Holzmann, Octopus Enterprises OOOOOOO___/ _______ USPS: 19611 La Mar Court, Cupertino, CA 95014 OOOOO \___/ UUCP: {hpda,pyramid}!octopus!pete ___| \_____ Phone: 408/996-7746