From: crash@ckctpa.UUCP (Frank "Crash" Edwards)
Subject: Re: DUUCP1.16 UUXQT: Slower than death!
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 02:18:55 GMT
Reply-To: crash%ckctpa@tct.com (Frank "Crash" Edwards)
Organization: Edwards & Edwards Consulting

liam@durie.amigans.gen.nz (Liam Greenwood) writes:
>Bob Lindabury - SysAdmin (bobl@bobsbox.rent.com) wrote:
>> Actually, the CNews binaries and scripts don't take up much room at all.
>> You can delete all the man pages and source code and you are left with
>> probably something less than 300k.  What takes up some room is your
>> Active file and history files.  If you don't keep much history around,
>> it might be possible to run on a floppy system.
>    I would be _very_ interested in seeing such a bootable floppy, with
>newsreader, mailer, editor, and front-end for C-news. When I looked it
>didn't seem achievable.

I had all of the necessary CNews files on a single floppy.  The news
articles were unbatched onto a second floppy.  Admittedly, the system
ran with 2.5MB of RAM (I think I had the SPIRIT board at the time, but
I don't remember -- I know I had the A501 though).

That was the system I did the port on, and the system on which I ran
the package.  Don't tell it can't be done.  I downloaded news 5-6
times a day (2400 baud) and when I left for work in the morning, I
would put a clean floppy in for articles.  When I got home in the evening,
the necessary binaries for Cnews (RNEWS and UUPC only) were copied into
RAM: and a new, clean, floppy went in for more articles while I read
what came in that day.  The same thing happened overnight.

The only files that _absolutely_must_ exist to receive news are RNEWS
and the in.coming directory.  I did all unbatching after I got home.
That way the articles remained as compressed batches until I manually
processed them ("manually" meaning that I typed the name of the script
instead of letting DCron do it).

I will grant you that having a hard drive (or what I got first was
another 2MB of RAM on a loaner A590) significantly increases the
useability of the system, but it's not unheard of.  (In fact, you just
heard of it! :-)

That configuration lasted about 6 months 'cuz I couldn't afford $500
for a 80MB hard drive.  Now (four years later) I've got Amiga Unix on
my 16MB A3000 with a little over 1GB on-line, a 250MB tape drive, a
Telebit WorldBlazer modem, and X Windows running on my DMI Resolver.
As times change and the minimum hardware configuration steadily rises,
the CNews package I listed above will become more practical.

>> I can't see why anyone would run any type of news system on floppies
>> anyway.  Jezz...small hard drives are cheap these days.
>    Money. There are still people in the world who find upgrading to a
>second floppy a financial struggle. Throwing more hardware at the problem
>may not always be an available solution. If someone asks, I'll tell them
>they would be better off with a harddisk and more memory. If they have to
>be satisfied with their current system, them I'm happy be be able to help
>them set up a somewhat limited, but functional, system.

I think Bob may be correct in saying that people that will want the power
and flexibility of CNews will acquire the means to provide it with a hard
drive and/or more memory.  Of course, a 25MHz '030 won't hurt either!

> Liam Greenwood ------ liam@durie.amigans.gen.nz ------ Wanganui, N.Z.

-- 
Frank "Crash" Edwards            Perceptual Technologies, Inc.
Fax:  813/786-6526               [Our office is moving; watch this space
Home: 813/786-3675               for the new phone number.]