adams@calma.UUCP (Robert Adams) (11/22/85)
For my two cents, things to net.sources.* should be sources and not binaries because of the "educational" nature of the net -- at least that's how it is sold at many sites. As a site admin, the reason to keep the net here is so people can learn from others. Although it's nice to get tools and games for UNIX\(tm or MACs, what one really wants, is to look at the style and techniques of others sources to learn how to use the system or machine. Learning is what we're here for. adams@calma.UUCP -- Robert Adams ...!ucbvax!calma!adams
tim@k.cs.cmu.edu (Tim Maroney) (11/26/85)
Again, I think people are getting confused. Everyone agrees that
net.sources.mac should have a lot more sources. However, being for sources
is not the same thing as being against binaries. Binaries are an absolute
necessity on the Mac, because of the proliferation of incompatible compilers
and interpreters. Without binaries, most software for the Macintosh would
be useless to most of us except as example code.
To summarize: net.sources.mac should contain sources for a greater proprtion
of the software distributed on it. However, binary distribution of ALL
Macintosh software must also be continued, or the group is useless.
By the way, I have just posted some 12,000 lines of source code to
net.sources.mac, as I have been intending to do for weeks (but have been
unable to because of hardware problems). I have an uncomfortable feeling
that the main opposition to net.sources.mac is coming from Mac-haters,
people who think the Mac is a worthless toy and anyone who thinks they're
using it for real work is fooling themselves. If so, we'll see a cute
double bind forming: "Look at these huge sources! How can we justify this
since we don't use the silly things?", forming an exquisite counterpoint to
the former "Without sources, the group is not fulfilling its mandate".
We'll see....
-=-
Tim Maroney, Professional Heretic, CMU Center for Art and Technology
tim@k.cs.cmu.edu | uucp: {seismo,decwrl,ucbvax,etc.}!k.cs.cmu.edu!tim
CompuServe: 74176,1360 | God is not dead; he just smells funny.