wp2latex (1 of 4)

[Peter da Silva]

In article <6462 at helios.ee.lbl.gov> Jef Poskanzer <jef at well.sf.ca.us> writes:
> In the referenced message, peter at ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) wrote:
> }And after all that it doesn't get archived because news guys don't have the
> }time to read and file every sources posting that comes in.

> As I pointed out recently, you're wrong about this.  The only archiving
> mechanism necessary for alt.sources is compressed numbered article files
> with an index of subjects.

Well, yes. And a flat file system with numbered files is quite adequate for 
any other purpose as well, if you keep a good list of files up to date in
a conventional numbered file. In fact, why use files? Just store data in
numbered blocks and keep an indexed list of block ranges, like Forth does.

Exxagerated, yes. But named files are a lot more convenient.

> And indeed, the only operating FTPable archive
> of alt.sources uses precisely this mechanism.

And the BBS that I run that offers this service uses named files, because
it's more convenient that all archive sites have the same name for a given
file. When there's more than one FTPable archive of alt.sources how will
you refer to a given article? Hey, check out 4278 on well.sf.ca.us! What's
that on cs.vu.nl? Um, I think it's 23Jul90.1475 at ai.mit.edu at cs.vu.nl.
What do they call their index?

We do keep an index file with arbitrary file names, but it's a real pain
for our users to download and scan. Not everyone runs at T1 speeds.
-- 
NAME: Peter da Silva.   WOLF: `-_-'
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