mdh@srhqla.SR.COM (Matt Hardin) (07/15/89)
In article <8907122317.AA09908@dsunx1.DSRD.ORNL.GOV> wnn@dsunx1.dsrd.ornl.gov (W. N. Naegeli) writes: >It is great if people share their software enhancements and bug fixes with >the world and we cannot thank them enough for their altruism. This is >really the network at its best. Hooray! Cheer! Cheer! Clap! Clap! > However, isn't there a better way to >distribute source code than by putting it into the body of a message? The comp.sources and comp.binaries newgroups do this all the time, or haven't you noticed? The net is one of my prime sources of good code. A lot of the nice conveniences we have on our machines come from code that was posted to the net. (BTW, I do think that maybe the patches could have been better posted in one of the comp.sources groups.) >Probably only a very few percent (most likely low single digit) of the >group members are interested in any particular piece of code. 50 lines or >so I can handle, but anything longer bothers me. It eats quite a bit of >network resources. The two pieces you are complaining about are but drops in the ocean. If you really want to sqwack about something, do it about something worthwhile. The worst I can see in this is that the patches may have been mis-posted. > Can't we agree on some standard way (e.g. designated >FTP server) for distributing code? This may come as a surprise to you, but there are a significant number of us out here in Netland who use UUCP and do not have access to an FTP server. Anonymous UUCP connections are few and far between and usually do not reflect the diversity and responsiveness of the FTP-based servers (not to offend you anonymous UUCP providers... I especially appreciate your efforts). >Please Chip don't take this personal. There have been many such messages >before, and I just picked yours more or less at random to bring the >subject up in this group. Good Grief. That's like apologizing to your friend after smacking him in the mouth for doing something nice for someone, and then telling him you did it to make a point. A private note would have been much better. Keep up the good work Chip! Don't stop now! Matt Hardin mdh@SR.COM