Re: Help! - ShrinkIt

[dempson@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <39i9k3$54f@bigfoot.wustl.edu>,
Joshua Noel Ash <jna1@ritz.wustl.edu> wrote:
> Hello All.
> 
> I am a newbie and am trying to obtain Shrinkit.  I have found it both on 
> wuarchive.wustl.edu and ftp.apple.com.  After ftp'ing I am using 
> sciibin.  Afterwards however, they are not executable on my GS.

Not surprising.  If you use SCIIBIN, all filetype information is lost.
You can either use the BINSCII program on the Apple II to do the
decoding, or fix the filetype up after downloading (this can be
tricky if you don't know what type of file it is).

You will need a program on the IIgs to set the filetype.  There are
quite a few of these, running under either GS/OS or ProDOS-8.

The SHRINKIT application itself is a SYS file.  The copy from
ftp.apple.com (it /dts/utils) appears to be the raw application,
without documentation (it is about 30k after decoding).  If you just
change the filetype to $FF (SYS), you should be able to launch it from
most ProDOS-8 and GS/OS application launchers.  It cannot be launched
directly from BASIC.SYSTEM (using the - command), because it is too
big.  There is a small program called SHRINKIT.SYSTEM that is usually
included with SHRINKIT, which can can be launched from BASIC.  It just
clears up memory and runs SHRINKIT.

You should find a copy of the full SHRINKIT package somewhere,
including documentation and SHRINKIT.SYSTEM.  There are also other
versions of ShrinkIt: UNSHRINK (also called Auto Unshrink),
SHRINKIT.IIPLUS and UNSHRINK.IIPLUS.  These have their uses (the
IIPLUS versions will work on any 64k Apple II that can run ProDOS,
while SHRINKIT requires a IIgs, IIc or enhanced 128k IIe).

ftp.apple.com also has version 1.1 of ShrinkIt IIgs, which is a lot
more powerful.  I haven't downloaded it, but it should be the
self-extracting archive version.

If you use SCIIBIN to decode this, make sure you use a protocol which
retains the exact file length when downloading it (e.g. YModem batch
or ZModem, but NOT XModem, XModem-1k, etc.)  The filetype needs to be
changed to $B3 (S16), with an auxiliary type of $DB03 (it isn't
critical).

> I also have tried using NuLib on the unix side (which I would prefer).  

You will again run into problems losing the filetype of all files you
decode using nulib.  I recommend strongly against using it before
downloading files to an Apple II.  It is fine if you want to use
"generic" files inside NuFX archives on another platform.

You should use SHRINKIT, GSHK, YANKIT or some other IIgs-based decoder.
-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand