Re: File Extensions

[phoenyx <quazar@dcnet2000.com>]

Thanks Jeff. I think many of us need this. I'm going to save it to my
Apple archive drive for future reference.


> Pretty much all you should see being made available are BXY (binary)
> and BSQ (text) files.  Here is a fairly complete list of the common
> extensions used for Apple II archives:
>
>      BXY  NuFX archive (SHK or SDK) in a Binary II wrapper (BNY)
>      BSQ  NuFX archive (SHK, SDK or BXY) encoded as 7 bit ASCII (BSC)
>
>      BSC  A file encoded as 7 bit ASCII

So that's where the BSC came from. Duh, I knew I had seen it. My
mistake then was in forgetting the shk inside the binscii wrapper.

> You will also see a large number of SHK files around various places
> but you'll end up having to fix the file type of the archive once you
> download it if you want it to be listed correctly in Finder windows.
> This may not be very easy depending on what software you have and
> whether you have much knowledge of the actual file and all the file
> types and auxiliary types that might describe the file.

That was part of the reason I suggested using a Binscii wrapper on
any real Apple files. I generally use the  ECP8 shell for the majority
of my file manipulations. I keep Shrinkit and Bscit in the commands
directory for quick access. It has a command for file type changing.
It seems to be a fairly workable system for me.

> If you download a BXY file and the Binary II wrapper isn't removed
> (the files still has a BXY extension and the wrong file/aux type) then
> you can use a simple Applesoft program by Gary Little called
> BINARY.DOWN that will strip the wrapper for you.
>
> At some point in the not too distant future I will be finishing up my
> KFest '99 HackFest entry which is a program that will go through every
> file in a directory and remove any Binary II wrappers and will also
> look in each file to see if it is a NuFX archive and make sure the
> file/aux types are set appropriately.
>

What a great program idea. Currently my archives are a shambles. I can
find what I need, but I wouldn't suggest it for anyone else.

> By the way, keep in mind that BSC and BSQ files will always be larger
> than the binary files they contain so I'd be much happier downloading
> the binary versions instead of the text ones and in fact that is
> exactly what I do when I have a choice.

That's understandable as the binscii is just a text wrapper. It can be a
pain to remove both the binscii and then the shk, but it has advantages.
For one, the file info is intact. Another, there is less chance of a bad
download due to browser problems.

For those of us who download a lot of files, we have learned the quirks
of our browser. But not every one has accomplished this.

For my personal archives it depends on where they are stored. The ones
I keep on an Apple or emulator disk are shk files. Those I keep in a Linux
archive directory will have the binscii wrapper once they have been sorted,
cleaned and verified. IMHO, it saves a little headache when I need to use
them again.

But this is just my personal preferences. I could always store them on
HFS partitions on my Linux box, but I find the ex2fs system more
reliable and I have better repair tools should it have a problem.

Phoenyx