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Re: best format for distribution (SHK? DSK? ZIP?)

On 8/2/2010 8:57 AM, Scott Alfter wrote:

In article<C87C44B8.1F1E4%ivanxqz@yahoo.com>,
Ivan X<ivanxqz@yahoo.com>  wrote:

On 8/2/10 2:41 AM, in article
1jml6hr.5g039hzl514yN%spectrumdaddy@nospam.com, "Ewen"
<spectrumdaddy@nospam.com>  wrote:


I always feel that the small Binary wrapper is of benefit if the file is
being downloaded with an application such as ProTerm or Spectrum, as
they will both then extract from the wrapper, and create the correct
filetype on disk.


So right, I see the benefits for users of programs such as those; but are
there any downsides for other users by providing BXY rather than SHK?


There shouldn't be...you can always use something like "dd bs=128 skip=1" to
remove the Binary II header from a file if it causes problems.

FWIW, the Apple II downloads on my website are all .BXY files, except for a
handful of files that aren't intended to be used on an Apple II (such as
source code that needs to be cross-compiled with cc65, for instance).  The
importance of that header was drilled into me way back when I was
uploading/downloading files on GEnie, and it's stuck with me ever since.


While the Binary II header has unquestioned value when used with
non-archived files, ShrinkIt gains nothing from its addition (since it
doesn't rely on type information at all).

Binary II was much more important when files of all types were being
directly downloaded from BBSs on Apple II's, which is a considerably
smaller "market" in the Internet age.

Consider that an Apple II user with direct Internet access today is
likely to have easy access to a wide variety of tools with which to
handle *any* file type issues, while a novice with an Apple //e and
a disk drive, plus a PC or Mac, will be much more likely to find
"naked" .shk archives than .bxy's, and be accustomed to dealing with
them.

-michael

NadaNet 3.1 for Apple II parallel computing!
Home page:  http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."