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From: bobmon@iuvax.UUCP (Robert Montante)
Newsgroups: net.sources.d
Subject: Re: Posting compressed info
Message-ID: 
Date: Sat, 30-Aug-86 19:43:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: iuvax.1280
Posted: Sat Aug 30 19:43:49 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 31-Aug-86 20:00:23 EDT
References:   
Reply-To: bobmon@iuvax.UUCP (Robert Montante)
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
Lines: 38
Keywords: cost, compress, uuencode

As one of those who has contributed in a small way to this "misguided trend", I
want to offer a couple of excuses for my belie that user-compression was 
useful.  In my case I was thinking more of binary files than of text files, so
that readability wasn't such an issue ('So what are they doing in NET.SOURCES?'
you ask.  Well, uh... oops?)  Since I wasn't aware that many mailers DO
compress things, I never took that conflict into consideration.

Again in my case, a much more significant point is that I want to retransmit
many of the more interesting (read: LARGE) files to my home computer.  I do
this via kermit on a 7-bit phone line, and kermit in binary mode is a pig-dog.
So I find it desirable to compress the file somehow for the same reason the
mailers do, and then I want to uuencode it for kermit's sake.  If the
originator of the posting uploaded it from a personal computer, then it may
have gone through compression/uuencoding in the first place.  AND, since the
popular compression programs for personal comp's aren't all compatible with
compression programs on the mainframes, it would be a real problem to compress,
upload, decompress, and post, followed by copy, compress, download, decompress
at home.

The preceding paragraph is at best an argument for compression of files that
are specific to personal computers.  In general, I have to concede the argument
that the inter-USENET mailing programs should manage compression/transmission
(I said these were excuses, not defenses :-).

As a final follow-up to all that, I would like someone in the know to explain
'shar' postings to me.  As far as I can see they merely repackage text files
into a slightly different text format, and they seem to cost a percent or so
in size.  What advantage am I unaware of that makes them worth the effort?

Thanx to all for the education...
	...Bob...

*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*
Opinion + Enforcement => Fact ;  'believe it or else!'

RAMontante
Computer Science				"Have you hugged ME today?"
Indiana University