122 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
122 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
[ 80 COLUMNS; LOWERCASE ]
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_______________________________
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| The Ramsacker's |
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| Textfile Primer |
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| A Pieces of Eight Production! |
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| July 27, 1989 |
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I have always been intrigued by the textfile as a medium for the
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exchange of useful information ranging from hacking to kracking, phreaking to
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anarchy, and humor to distaste. The abundance of information that can be
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obtained from textfiles used to be widely understaged by the many people who
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saw them merely as "g-philes", using that term in a slightly negative
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connotation. As of late, I have seen a movement towards the acceptance of
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textfiles as a viable form of trade through the proliferation of groups such
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as cDc who's main contribution to the modeming society has been their release
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of many fine textfiles ranging from tutorials to interesting stories.
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What has been bothering me as of late in my ongoing collection of
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textfiles is the lack of quality of some of the files that I receive. It is
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annoying to download a file that looks like some stupid fuck wrote it by
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slamming his fist down on the keyboard; the spelling being atrocious and the
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format being unbearable. I realize that not all of us are scholars, but it
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only takes a few more minutes to check up on your spelling and format the
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text a bit. What disgusts me further is that some people DO take the time to
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make their files look pretty, only to have some complete looze fuck it up by
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viewing it over shitty phone lines and then upload it to another system,
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thus causing a perpetuation of a corrupted file. In most cases, some of the
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important data gets lost or the effect of the file is shattered because you
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come upon a string of line noise right in the middle of an interesting
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section. If people would just take the time to handle the files with care,
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there wouldn't be many crap files around. Unless you're an asshole, you
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don't check a book out of a library and destroy it. Let's face it, fucked
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files are just that: fucked! And nobody likes a copy of a fucked file no
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matter how little they care. Everyone would rather have the file in it's
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original format.
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Since I predict the exchange of textfiles to be a popular pasttime (much
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like the collection of "wares" in the earlier days of Apple pirating), I
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have written this file in hopes to set a guideline for file writing and
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trading. You wouldn't put out a "bad" crack, or a patch that didn't work or
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even fucked up what you were trying to patch. The same goes for textfiles,
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in the same sense.
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Here are some guidelines to keep in mind when dealing with the trade or
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writing of textfiles:
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o If possible, try to download the file using a protocol so that if any
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line noise is present during your session it won't affect the file.
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o If you must V)iew files, and if you are planning to upload it to
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another system, then when you buffer it, at least try to remove any
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garbage that may have infiltrated the text, and PLEASE remove all
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transfer prompts (i.e. "[ Volume 10 #1-11 ]" and "(>"). I find those
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most annoying, especially after they have accumulated after many
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transfers between different systems.
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o Don't try to do the general modem public a favor by "editing" files.
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Let sleeping dogs lie. If the author intended the file to be in all
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uppercase then that's how it should stay. The same goes for 40 column
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textfiles. They don't need to be stretched out to 80 columns. They
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still read the same either way.
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o Never add your say to a file or modify the original authors work just
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because you feel strongly about the subject. You wouldn't change
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Shakespear's words around in any of his works (unless you were in
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school and had nothing better to do). Modifying other peoples work is
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the sign of a true loser. I saw this done to "The Real Pirates Guide"
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and it totally disgusted me (you're a fucken loser for that, Dak)!
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o When writing files, don't neglect to include the date (and maybe even
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the time) somewhere in the file. You're writing history of sorts,
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and people who read your file in the future might be interested to
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know when you wrote it (especially if the material stands a chance of
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being outdated in the future and will not apply, such as some phreak
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info).
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o Write your files on a word processor that will add carriage returns to
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all the lines or at least has word wrap. That usually solves the
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problem of extra carriage returns between lines which screws up the
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text somewhat.
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Remember, as an author, you should be proud of your work. So take the
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time and effort to format and proofread it before you put it out. Even if it
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is just a quickie file, spend a few extra seconds rounding out the rough
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edges to make it at least look respectable. And you wouldn't want some
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asshole fucking with your files after you put them out, so don't do it to
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other peoples files.
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I hope some of my ideas catch on. Even if they don't, I figure that I
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at least put forth the effort.
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---------------------------------
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NOTICE:
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---------------------------------
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No additions, deletions, or
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modifications may be made to
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this file AT ALL. Also, this
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file is to be transferred in
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its original format and any
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corrupted copies should be
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put out of their misery by
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being deleted.
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---------------------------------
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A Semi-Useless File from Pieces of Eight Kracking
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The Ramsacker
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July 27, 1989
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11:17 PM
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