Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!plaid!chuq 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 --- Chuq "Fixed in 4.0" Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ