Disperse/Collect version 1.0 - Copyright 1996 by Wei Dai

The purpose of Disperse is to split large binary files into small pieces 
and encode them in ASCII so that they may be posted to Usenet, 
downloaded by others, and reconstructed into the original files.  Since 
there are already programs that do this you may wonder why you should 
use Disperse instead.  The reason is that none of the other currently 
used file splitting/encoding programs were designed for posting large 
binary files to Usenet.  For example, the popular uuencode/uudecode has 
many problems when used in this fashion.  To quote Benjamin J. Walbeehm, 
who wrote an excellent uudecoder:

        On the uuencoding standard
        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        In my opinion, the uuencoding standard is not very well thought-
        out. As long as an encoded file consists of only one section (in 
        the early days, splitting an encoded file up into more than one 
        section was most probably not allowed), there is not much wrong 
        with the standard, but as soon as the necessity rose for files to 
        be split up, the standard should have been changed as well.  To 
        start with, there is no standard way of designating non-section 
        parts, so the standard provides us with no means whatsoever to 
        distinguish between encoded sections and mere comments.  Also, the 
        standard does not describe a way of deciding which sections belong 
        together, nor in which order.  Most uuencoders put such additional 
        information in the files, but with the lack of a standard, almost 
        every single one of them has its own way of doing this.  A number 
        of encoders will also put one or more checksums in the file, but
        again, this has not been standardized. It would have been very 
        easy to devise a standard for adding such additional information, 
        but it has not been done, and it may be far too late now...

Well, as the saying goes, better late than never.  Disperse was designed 
specifically for posting binary files to Usenet, and solves all of these 
problems.  Plus, it has the added advantage that a file may be split 
into more pieces than is necessary to reconstruct it, so that some of 
them may be lost or corrupted without affecting the success of 
reconstruction.  For example, you can split a file into 10 pieces so 
that any 8 of them will allow you to get back the original file.  Have 
you ever posted a large file only to receive hundreds of e-mail saying 
please repost the 153rd part, or the 76th part, etc.?  If you use 
Disperse with the redundancy option, then this will no longer happen.  
Try it out!

Collect is the companion program that collects the pieces made by 
Disperse and reconstructs the original file.  It is very flexible and 
will handle multiple files, out of order pieces, multiple pieces in a 
single file, garbage before/after pieces, etc.  All you have to do is to 
save all the pieces into files however you want and feed them into 
Collect, and it will do and rest and spit out the original files.

Both Disperse and Collect should be very easy to use.  If you need help 
with either of them just type "disperse -h" or "collect -h".

Disperse and Collect are a shareware package.  This means that you may 
distribute it freely, but if you decide to use either of them for 
purposes other than evaluation or testing, you should register by 
sending $10 (or more, if you wish) to

Wei Dai
13440 SE 24th St.
Bellevue, WA  98005

I accept any kind of payment, and I also accept ecash e-mailed to 
weidai@eskimo.com.  If you send me ecash, please encrypt it with my PGP 
public key at the bottom of this file.  The programs will not nag you 
about registration and there is no limit to how long you may evaluate 
them, so take as much time as you want to decide whether or not to 
register.

If you would like to build Disperse/Collect into your own application, I 
can license you the source code for a low fee or perhaps even for free.  
Please contact me by e-mail for more details.

Finally, this software comes with no warranty of any kind.  By using it, 
you agree that the author may not be held liable for any damages arising 
out of use or inability to use the software.

Wei Dai <weidai@eskimo.com>

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