koreth@ssyx.ucsc.edu (Steven Grimm) (05/09/89)
Submitted-by: koreth@ssyx.UCSC.EDU (Steven Grimm) Posting-number: Volume 5, Info 1 Archive-name: intro This is the first of three introductory articles about comp.binaries.atari.st. This one describes how to submit binaries to the newsgroup, where the archive sites are, and how to contact them. A companion article lists all previously-published binaries, and a third article explains how to retrieve and unpack binaries. I am always looking for suggestions on how to improve the usefulness of the newsgroup, and can be contacted as listed below. -- Steven Grimm -------------------- Subject: Submitting binaries for publication Items intended for posting or queries and problem notes should be sent to atari-binaries@ssyx.ucsc.edu. If you are on a UUCP-only site, you can send them to uunet!ucbvax!ucscc!ssyx!atari-binaries. If you want verification of arrival, so say in a cover note, or at the beginning of your submission, if it is small. I try to verify that a program works, and if I can't get it to work, I may hold up posting it for a couple of days. Please note that, except in rare cases, software without documentation will not be published. The backlog from receipt to posting varies from one to four weeks depending mostly on the set of submissions currently in my queue. If you are submitting both sources and binaries, please send the two separately. If I have to separate your sources from your binaries by hand, your submission will most likely sit on the back burner for a while. -------------------- Subject: The structure of comp.binaries.atari.st articles Each posting in comp.binaries.atari.st is called an "issue"; there are roughly 100 issues to a volume. The division is arbitrary and may vary. There are two types of articles in comp.binaries.atari.st: binaries and "information postings." They can be distinguished by the subject line: Subject: v05INF2: Index and other info This first word in the title identifies this as the second info posting of volume four. Similarly, the subject line shown below: Subject: v05i081: fix40 -- Fix for forty-folder bug identifies this as the 81st binary article in Volume 5. Large programs are broken up into smaller pieces, and have subject lines that look like this: Subject: v05i041: mtgem -- Multitasking GEM replacement part04/18 Certain information about the system configuration required to use the program is given on the keywords line. Keywords: uuencode, 1meg, medium, high This means that the program requires at least one meg of RAM and runs in medium or high resolution. Following is a list of keywords; new ones may be added as needed. They are mostly self-explanatory. uuencode - program is uuencoded (UNIX uudecode required to unpack) uue - program is uuencoded (ST uud required to unpack) arc - program is archived (arc required to unpack) zoo - program is a zoo archive (zoo required to unpack) high - high resolution medium - medium resolution low - low resolution 1meg - needs 1 meg of RAM The first few lines of an article are auxiliary headers that look like this: Submitted-by: good@atari.UUCP (Roy Good) Posting-number: Volume 5, Issue 80 Archive-name: new-desktop The "Submitted by" is the author of the program. If you have comments about the binaries published in comp.binaries.atari.st this is the person to contact. When possible, this address is in domain form, otherwise it is a UUCP bang path relative to some major (backbone) site. The second line repeats the volume/issue information for the aide of notes sites and automatic archiving programs. The Archive-name is the "official" name of this program in the archive. Large postings will have names that look like this: Archive-name: desktop/part01 Since most archive sites run UNIX, articles are given UNIX-style filenames rather than ST-style filenames. I do make an effort to keep filenames to 8 characters or smaller, however. -------------------- Subject: Reporting and tracking bugs and patches to postings Updates to programs are usually announced in comp.sys.atari.st. When large changes are made to a program, the entire thing will be reposted to comp.binaries.atari.st. To report bugs, contact the person listed in the Submitted-to header. Often there is a contact address in a README file, too. I do not maintain the programs I moderate, so don't send your bug reports to me. If the program documentation mentions some file that isn't included in the posting (for instance, a font editor's documentation might refer to some sample fonts), contact the submitter, not me. I post articles in their entirety, so if it isn't posted, I probably don't have it. -------------------- Subject: Archive sites If you miss part or all of a posting, or would like to see what has been posted to the group in the past, archive sites are helpful. Please try to retrieve files from the archives before asking me for them. 1. Site killer has a full archive available for anonymous UUCP. For information on accessing it, send mail to archive-request@killer.dallas.tx.us. 2. Site ssyx is running an archive server, and (since it's the moderator's machine) offers full archives of both the sources and binaries groups. For instructions, send a message with the word "help" in the message body to: archive-server@ssyx.ucsc.edu or uunet!ucbvax!ucscc!ssyx!archive-server Ssyx also supports anonymous ftp; its internet address is 128.114.133.1. More complete instructions for are given in an upcoming article. If you are making an archive available to the public, or would like to, please contact me.