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From: chuq@plaid.Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: binaries postings
Message-ID: <35669@sun.uucp>
Date: Sun, 6-Dec-87 15:15:23 EST
Article-I.D.: sun.35669
Posted: Sun Dec  6 15:15:23 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 11-Dec-87 06:49:47 EST
References: <8712060224.AA27580@cory.Berkeley.EDU>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Reply-To: chuq@sun.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Organization: Fictional Reality, uLtd
Lines: 21

>>Why is everything posted to comp.binaries.mac uncompressed? It would seem
>>reasonable to me that using StuffIt to compress everything would enable
>>more stuff to be posted without increasing the share of the bandwidth.

>        Major USENET nodes already compress data for the transfer.

>	Since you cannot send raw binary data over the usenet, you would
>need to make an ascii encoding.

Not true. What you do is use StuffIt before you binhex it, making the
resulting hqx file significantly smaller. Even if it reduces the amount of
compression done at the transfer layer by USENET (and it would be
interesting to see what would happen....) the stuffed and hexed file still
has many advantages, not the least of which is a significantly reduced
download time. So stuffing it before posting it saves not only during USENET
transfers but during downloads, where relying on the USENET compression only
buys a gain when the file gets slogged around the network.

chuq
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Chuq "Fixed in 4.0" Von Rospach			chuq@sun.COM	Delphi: CHUQ