A readable, robust encoding for source postings

[Ed Vielmetti]

In article <1990Dec31.232624.23510 at zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> xanthian at zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes:

   The major requirement for this method is that there needs to be a very
   explicit clear text explanation of the purpose and contents of the
   archive to let the reader make a decision whether it is worth unpacking.

The text explanation should be in a separate article from the globs of
binary encoded stuff.  It should probably be cross-posted to a
relevant group, so that people who don't read the binary-encoded
sources group can be informed in a timely fashion of new stuff.  In
addition it should have a very clear and precise description of where
a reasonably fresh version can be FTP'd from, if the code is available
in that way; that will facilitate reposting (just) the announcement
into comp.archives.  

For that matter, a separate "this is what it is and where you can get
it" would be useful for any set of postings to alt.sources, sort of a
"part 0 of 15" which would be sent around more widely than the other
half a megabyte blortful.

--Ed
emv at ox.com