Re: How to distribute Unix Code?

My son, who is far more knowledgeable in system-level Unix matters than I am, offers these comments: ->To: alan@po.den.mmc.com (Alan Popiel) ->Subject: Re: How to distribute Unix Code? ->Date: Fri, 03 Jun 1994 10:06:51 -0700 ->From: "T. Alexander Popiel" <popiel@lucid.com> -> ->->From: jlumbley@netcom.com (Joe Lumbley) ->->Subject: How to distribute Unix Code? ->->Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 12:06:56 GMT ->-> ->->My Informix book will have a companion disk of shell scripts for DBA ->->tasks. My editor wants to put it on a Unix-formatted tar 3.5" diskette. ->->I want to put it on a 3.5" DOS diskette, in both tar and sharfile formats. ->-> ->->Can you all read Unix tar floppies? -> ->I can right now, I can back at school, but until I worked for OCS last ->summer, I would have been unable to. See next section. -> ->->Do you even have floppy drives? (My HP's don't). Can you access them? -> ->I have access to them now, but before a year ago, I didn't (on Unix ->boxes, at least). Since I invariably have root, I can use them if ->present... -> ->->Are the floppy formats for Unix identical? -> ->No, once filesystems have been put on them, as the filesystems are ->often very different in structure. However, if used as a pure tar ->medium, then there should not be any trouble; that uses only the very ->low-level format, which is pretty consistent (18 sectors/track, ->80 tracks, etc...) -> ->->My thoughts are that EVERYONE has access to an MSDOS machine and either ->->a modem or ftp and that this is the easiest way to assure that everyone ->->can read the code. -> ->Even those with their floppy drives on Unix boxes can access DOS disks; ->just grab the mtools package from ftp.gnu.ai.mit.edu. Copyleft is a happy- ->making thing. -> ->->Comments? -> ->There are two problems that I see with distributing in DOS format: ->first, each floppy will hold less than maximum capacity, and second, ->the 8+3 char names could be a nuisance. Other than that, it should ->be fine. -> ->I actually think that using the DOS format is a good idea; that's ->what I've done with my archives... -> ->- Alex -> Regards, Alan ___________________________ ______________________| R. Alan Popiel |__________________________ \\ Internet: | Martin Marietta, SLS | / \\ alan@den.mmc.com | P.O. Box 179, M/S 3810 | Std disclaimers apply. / )Voice: | Denver, CO 80201-0179 USA | ( / 303-977-9998 |___________________________| (But you knew that!) \\ /________________________) (____________________________\\