ml>  AI> but if there are a lot of files recieved on any day they get split 
ml>  AI> at 32kb. I'm pretty sure any tosser on any OS can toss those.. :)
ml> 
ml> yup but who really wants to be tossing 100's of small messages when 
ml> tossing one will do, go faster, and take up less space (due to no 
ml> duplication of the headers and other control information) O:)

 AI> Yep, posting ten 32kb msgs instead of one 320kb message doesn't
 AI> seem like a very good solution. 

you're darned tootin... especially considering all the additional info that
needs to be added to each one... the header is at least 40 characters (for
argument's sake, we'll use that figure for calculations) so that means at
least another 400 bytes _plus_ the additional seenbys, paths, and (at
least) origin lines... then you also have to add in the additional overhead
for the ^aSPLIT lines and anything else that is added during the process of
splitting...

 AI> Even at that I've only seen it get split once so I've never really 
 AI> had much reason to think about it. I leave it at that because I've 
 AI> had tossers crash in the past and don't wish that on anyone.

no doubt... in fact, i doubt that anyone who has really moved the mail
hasn't had a tosser crash...

 AI> I guess that third party utility you spoke of is a good option if a
 AI> tosser can't do the deed itself, although I don't like the idea
 AI> much. 

i'f my system is the last one remaining that can't handle messages larger
than 32k (for instance) why should everyone else in the network have to be
saddled with messages that small? the only real problem i'm aware of in
this area is that this util might not be available for some platforms that
may be being used in fidonet... however, i must also state that i'm not
aware of any remaining systems running things like the COCO, TI99, TRS-80's
or other antiquated machines... i'd possibly even go so far as to hazard a
guess that most everyone is running at least a "current" or
"recent" OS, too... in this day in time, that means windows 98,
2000, ME, or XP, LINUX in some flavor, OS/2, and possibly the old apple
system 9 (i think it was called)... newer apple/machintosh machines are
running a flavor of linux and even their chipset is currently changing to
intel based chips instead of motorola stuff...

 AI> Tossers that I know of, that are still being developed (HPT, MBSE,
 AI> SBBSECHO) and likely more that I have no experience with, do toss
 AI> large messages so we are moving in the right direction.

yup!

)\/(ark