Re: Help: Writing PRODOS disks from a MAC?

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <JRD.96Oct14094308@hotsprings>, John Dunning <jrd@hotsprings> wrote:
                                                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   Tip: if you want people to reply via email as you requested, it's
really helpful if you configure your news software so that your full
and correct email address shows up in the article header. Contact your
sysadmins for help if you need that. [I had to guess as to your real
email address, as the computers listed in the headers didn't support
nice fingering to determine the address.]

>I've been helping a (mostly non-computer-literate, so far) friend get
>his IIgs configured and running.  I've downloaded a bunch of stuff
>from various archives, using my mac, and dumped them on
>prodos-formatted disks.  The IIgs can read the disks, but when I try
>to bootstrap BINSCII, by going to basic and EXEC'ing the BINSCII.EXE
>file, basic complains "FILE TYPE MISMATCH".  Other programs complain
>similarly when trying to read the files I've downloaded.

   The comp.sys.apple2 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) contains a
large section on how to download binscii, and how to deal with this
problem.  (Tip: it's the Mac). The section on downloading is too long
to simply cut and paste in, but the FAQ is available all the time at
http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/csa2.html

>A bit of digging reveals that the mac seems to have written files with
>prodos file-type $00.  My surmise is that it's supposed to be some
>code that signifies a text file.

   Nah, it's because of the Mac's silly and unnecessary habit of
forcing the adddding of resource forks to files, either in downloading
or copying to ProDOS disks. If the file doesn't have a resource fork,
the FAQ lists how to change the filetype; if it does have a resource
fork, there are several things you can do on the mac side of things to
get binscii unpacked.

   [Yes, there are Apple II programs that'll rip off the resource
forks.  However, they're stored in binscii and/or shrinkit archives,
which you don't have the ability to unpack. Thus, a classic case of a
can opener contained in the middle of a tin can...]

Nathan Mates
--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
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