Re: Zlink Block Error Problems.

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Ernest writes ...
> 
> Thanks for your help, everybody, and here's an update.
> 
> I reset the baud rates on both systems to 
> 300, changed them to 8n1, with the
> Zlink terminal emulation off.
> 
> Using these settings, I was able to send
> Chinook.exe across to the Apple IIe
> (enhanced.) So, I'm finally getting somewhere
> but the problem is that the
> Chinook file on the PC is a 21k program file
> but on the Apple it's an ASCII
> text file (file type = txt.) When I try to run it, I get a file type
> mismatch error.
> 

     The ".exe" suffix is sometimes used for self extracting ShrinkIt files
created by Jerry Kindall's Xtrax program. If Chinook.exe is such a file,
Paul's suggestion that you EXEC the file should work. Under ProDOS, you could
enter

EXEC CHINOOK.EXE

or

-CHINOOK.EXE

 ....
> Is this conversion from an .exe file to an ASCII
> text file normal? The file
> saved as Chinook.exe but ProDos thinks that it's a .txt file.
 ....

     Although it looks like the file lost its filetype in the transfer, this
actually happened a long time ago when it was first moved to a PC for
uploading. The file did not change. It's just that filetype information is
maintained in a ProDOS directory on the ProDOS disk where the file resides,
not in the file itself.

     The usual default filetype for a file transferred from a PC is going to
be Text. The nice thing about Xtrax-created files is that they are are
supposed to be Text type files.

     There is a way to retain filetype information with an Apple II file. The
file can have a Binary prefix tacked on. This is, in general, a bad idea. The
prefix is an archaic, Apple-only method which can make the file difficult to
deal with on a PC and a problem for users who's telecom utils do not
automatically strip off the prefix. For example, if your copy of Chinook.exe
has a Binary II prefix, it will not work as intended until the prefix is
stripped off.

     Besides, ShrinkIt archives retain the filetypes of contained files and
the ShrinkIt archive itself does not need to retain filetype in order to be
recognized and unshrinked via ShrinkIt.



Rubyand