Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!aries!mcdonald From: mcdonald@aries.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) Newsgroups: comp.sources.d Subject: Re: Why "shar: Shell Archive (v1.22)" is bad Message-ID: <1989Sep25.195540.18104@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Date: 25 Sep 89 19:55:40 GMT References: <14502@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <4155@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> <495@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News) Reply-To: mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) Organization: ^ Lines: 9 If one is going to distribute things in a shar-like format, it is really important that the protocol to shar and un-shar be described in a method that is easily implemented as ordinary C (or whatever) code. Using a UNIX shell is not satisfactory IF the operations cannot be conveniently done by a relatively simple program. This is so people who don't use UNIX can use these files. Binary files should be clearly distinguished from text files. Doug McDonald(mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu)