Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 18:08:30 +1000
From: root <root AT linuxbox DOT nse DOT com DOT au>
Message-Id: <199604220808.SAA00271@linuxbox.nse.com.au>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
CC: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: RE: Djgpp in australia?
In-Reply-To: <64059871@toto.iv>
Reply-To: naderr AT topaz DOT cqu DOT edu DOT au

Eli Zaretskii writes:
 > 
 > On Mon, 22 Apr 1996, root wrote:
 > 
 > > 	archie.au://micros/pc/oak/vendors/djgpp
 > > 
 > > If you want to find a piece of software, a very qwel avenue to
 > > take is: email archie AT archie DOT au (or whatever archie you please,
 > > I use archie.rutgers.edu beacuse it is more comprehensive) ... and

Yes and no :)

 > 
 > Archie is not really helpful (IMHO) in finding large packages such as 
 > DJGPP.  It really shines if you are looking for a specific file, because 
 > you can then judge how good the hit is by looking at the date of the file 
 > that archie returns.  So if you know that DJGPP includes gcc272b.zip, you 
 > can use archie to find the latest copy.  However, if you ask archie to 
 > look for "djgpp", in general you'll be in deep trouble: most of the hits 
 > will be hopelessly out of date old versions, and the timestamp of the 
 > directory (djgpp is a directory) is not really helpful.

Well, no ... if it hits archie.au://micros/pc/oak/vendors/djgpp/

You _have_ found what you are looking for, no matter how old the
directory is, v1 & v2 are there ... and when v3 comes out (? :) )
it will be mirrowed there as well :)

 > 
 > Also, most archie servers leave much to be desired in their update 
 > policy, and you must know the various servers quite intimately to decide 
 > which one to use.  For instance, how would an innocent user know that the 
 > rutgers server is better?  (And btw, if you want to see one of the best, 
 > try the one from Austria, archie.univie.ac.at.)

You can say that again, archie.au, as a search engine, is a  joke! 
And thanks for the Austrian tip :)

 > 
 > And of course, if you are after the latest version of some hottest 
 > software, don't use archie at all, because the best servers only update 
 > their databases once in a month; many don't do even that much.

Well ... go on, share with us what you use as a database
search engine for locating software pachages :)

Thanks again,

Cheers,

		Rob