Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!nrl-cmf!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!tneff
From: tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: New public domain archiving system development
Summary: mmmmm hmmmm ...
Message-ID: <6538@dasys1.UUCP>
Date: 20 Sep 88 00:45:04 GMT
References: 
Reply-To: tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Organization: Independent Users Guild
Lines: 36

Well now.  Wasn't that special, as Church Lady says!  Let's see
what we got.

 - The file format is gonna be PD.

 - By the way, if you have any ideas about what that format actually 
   ought to BE, they'd love to hear from you.

 - The program itself won't be PD.

 - But there "may" be some PD C-code published to show you how to
   do it yourself.

 - Of course, the principal author just lost his shirt in court for
   doing it himself.  But you go right ahead, why would anyone want to
   sue YOU.

 - At least four independent programmers are on the team already.
   (Start multiplying, all you Mythical Man-Month devotees.)

 - Other packaging formats like ARC and LBR, with fewer programmers
   and fewer contemplated target environments, have typically gone 
   through a couple of iterations over a period of a year or so before
   settling down to relative stability.

 - But this one is going to replace ARC immediately, starting with
   all the files on SIMTEL20.

 - Not to worry though, they might get this one perfect the first
   time!  If not, there'll be as many new versions of the shareware
   as it takes.  (And bringing your own compatible applications up
   to date will give you something to do!)
-- 
Tom Neff			UUCP: ...!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!tneff
	"None of your toys	CIS: 76556,2536	       MCI: TNEFF
	 will function..."	GEnie: TOMNEFF	       BIX: t.neff (no kidding)