Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site bbncca.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!bbncca!sdyer From: sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer) Newsgroups: net.news Subject: Re: Posting object code to net.sources Message-ID: <890@bbncca.ARPA> Date: Thu, 9-Aug-84 01:06:46 EDT Article-I.D.: bbncca.890 Posted: Thu Aug 9 01:06:46 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 9-Aug-84 06:42:22 EDT References: <1604@sun.uucp> <466@turtlevax.UUCP> Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma. Lines: 35 >Yes, let's keep this object code out of net.sources. In >addition, USENET is a connection of UNIX sites, and few sites >would be interested in CPM object code. I really can't figure this one out, people. Small personal computers such as the IBM-PC and the Mac are becoming more and more pervasive, and although I do not own either of them (yet), if I did, I would only be too happy to receive useful programs, even if they are distributed only in binary form. My site may be a UNIX machine, but it's likely that there are many PCs where I work, and many people may also have them in their homes. The kind of argument used here could be used against people who post C-language versions of code with heavy OS-dependencies: "Hey, keep your BDS C forth interpreter out of net.sources; we UNIX types can't run it." or "Where do you get off posting that 4.2BSD-dependent program: my PDP-11 running V7 barfs when I try to compile it." But we don't say this, because we reason that the greater good of the net is served, even if an individual aite has no use for it. In any event, I would hate to think that uuencoded binaries would ever replace source-code postings where appropriate, but there are also many benefits. The typical PC environment is simply not the same as your usual UNIX system: one has a superabundance of software tools and languages, the other is as likely to run 123, a modem program and nothing else. If someone posts a source program written in what-have-you, I may not be able to use it, because I haven't shelled out $500 for the compiler. Standardized environments like the PC (or MSDOS machines) and the Mac actually make binary distribution practical and preferable, and not only a way to maintain a greedy programmer's trade secrets. -- /Steve Dyer {decvax,linus,ima}!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbncca.ARPA