Re: Sick And Tired of SHK

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

"ruud.dingemans" writes ...
> 
> Okay, that's it, I've tried a lot, read several FAQs and still it
> doesn't work properly.
> 
> Why doesn't Shrinkit want to unpack files that came from a Mac?
>

     Most likely, the files have been screwed up by the Mac.

 
> It always gives me a 'can't open forked file' error, no matter what I try.
> 
> I tried using Shrink II, ProType, ResEditing the file, but no go.   Grrr.
> 
> Now I'm getting stumped. What's going on here? What's the sure-fire way
> to unshrink these files?
> 
> (Note: I have succesfully unshrunk shk's on the IIgs. But these were
> packed as .sit files I think, and unstuffed directly to a prodos disk,
> and then ProType'd. But ordinary .shk files downloaded from the Web and
> put on a prodos disk don't work!)
> 
 ....

     In general, your best bet is to avoid having any file you download to a
Mac get anywhere near a Mac ProDOS disk or undergo any Mac ProDOS processing.
Download to HFS hard disk and transfer via a NULL modem connection to your GS.

     In a later post you mention that your IIgs is a ROM-00 machine. A ROM-00
plus is that you can run some early IIgs software which ROM-01 and ROM-03
machines choke on. (Wish I still had our 00 ROMs-- it would be fun to build-in
a way to select between ROM-00 and ROM-01.)

     A problem is that you can not run any moderately recent versions of GS
System. (Plugging in an 01 ROM or PROM would let you run versions of System
which can read HFS diskettes-- another way to transfer files from a Mac.)  And,
I don't know for sure that GS-ShrinkIt will run on a ROM-00 GS.

     Anyway, so long as a file has not been corrupted there should be no
problem with unshrinking whole-disk 5.25" and 3.5" (800k) ShrinkIt archives
using 8-bit ShrinkIt on a IIgs. As mentioned earlier, one source of corruption
is ProDOS handling by a Mac. (The file itself may not be messed up; but, its
directory entry probably will be.)

     Another source of corruption is downloading an .shk, .sdk, .dsk, etc. file
in Text mode. This often happens when files are not recognized as binary type
files by the server of an http site. (Which explains why so many Apple II http
archives maintain files in .zip form. All servers know that .zip files are
binary.)

     Fortunately, at least on a PC, you can use the UnCook utility to clean up
Text mode corruption. (For more about this, click "Download Help" on the
contents page of any recent issue of GS WorldView.)

     By the way, what is it are you trying to download and transfer to your
IIgs?



Rubywand