Re: Can I un-Binscii or un-Shrink on a PC? --Nulib

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Sandy writes ...
>
> .... 
> I have many files that have been emailed to me and downloaded from ftp
> sites.  I have tried to decode some of the files (after a direct cable
> transfer, which takes about 1/2 hour for big files)   And the files end up
> being corrupted.
> 
> So before trying to transfer the files again, I want to see if they can be
> decoded while they are on my PC.
> ....
> Is there a program that will UN-Shrink Files?


     Deven suggested NULIB. It looks like a good way to handle some .SHK
files on a PC. I just downloaded NULIB version 3.24 via Matthew Conte's
XGS Home Page:

http://www.jurai.org/~funaho/emulators/XGS/

It comes in as a .ZIP file named "nulib324.zip" which you can unZip via
WinZIP to obtain info files and Nulib.exe . Below is an excerpt from the
Nulib.doc file:

>>

NuFile eXchange (NuFX) Archive Utility
NuLib v3.2 Documentation

By Andy McFadden


Updated September 23, 1992

Overview
--------

NuLib is a shell-based NuFX archive utility, based loosely on "ARC"
for the IBM PC and "ar" under UNIX.  It allows you to perform certain
operations on the same archives used by ShrinkIt, including view
archive contents, add to archive, extract from archive, and delete
from archive.  In addition, it will list and unpack files from Binary
II archives.

<<

     Nulib runs under DOS.

     Suppose you have unZipped nulib324.zip to C:\nulib on your PC. To
view the contents of a .SHK file named A2stuff.SHK under Windows95 you
could stick it in c:\nulib, open a DOS window and, once in C:\nulib,
enter ...

nulib tv A2stuff.shk 

     The docs file supplies details on unShrinking, creating, and adding
to .SHK files.

     One especially nice feature is that nulib can unShrink an A2 text
file so that it is converted to PC text file format (i.e. the line
enders are adjusted so that it 'looks like it's supposed to').

     On your PC, nulib does not try to unShrink and use resource forks.
For example, if you unShrink a Teach file and view it on PC, you will
get just a block of text. 


-------


     Regarding downloaded files being corrupted: a few, of course, are
bad files; they were corrupted during upload. The usual reason for a bad
download of a good file is doing an ASCII mode download for a binary
file. Except for .TXT files, most files on the major A2 sites should be
downloaded in Binary mode.

     Another source of problems appears to the use of "Helper"
applications to automatically handle files with certain extensions. When
downloading Apple II files, it seems best to turn OFF Helpers and avoid
any 'help' from the PC.

     When transferring several files from PC to GS, you can, often, save
time and avoid a lot of bother by using WinZIP to put all the files into
a single .ZIP file. The .ZIP file can be transferred via NULL modem to
your GS using Zmodem and, once there, unZipped using PKUnZip.

 
Rubywand