Re: GS and Internet

[nparker@cie-2.uoregon.edu (Neil Parker)]

In article <75901-807843568@mindlink.bc.ca> Michael_Ewen@mindlink.bc.ca
(Michael Ewen) writes:
>        I have been trying to use lynx to download programs and pictures,
>particularly from CalTech (I think it is).  BUt I keep getting damaged
>Shrinkit files.  Is there anything that I should or could be doing?  I am
>getting the download and am ending up with a Shrinkit file, but it won't
>decompress, claiming to be corrupted (I am using the latest GSHK, whatever
>the number is).

The problem is that lynx thinks any file it doesn't know about is a text
file, and downloads it in ASCII mode.  This can cause severe damage to files
that aren't really ASCII, usually in the form of bytes that get inserted
or deleted whenever the software thinks it sees the end of a "line" of text.

There is no 100%-foolproof solution to this problem, but the following trick
works for the vast majority of Apple-II-related FTPing.

Use a text editor to create a file with the following contents:

application/x-Shrinkit shk SHK sdk SDK
application/x-BinaryII bny BNY bqy BQY bxy BXY

If you're on a UNIX system, call the file ".mime.types".  If you're on a
VMS system, call it "MIME.TYPES".  In either case, store it in your home
directory.

This tells lynx to treat any file that "looks like" a Shrinkit or Binary II
file as a binary file.  In order to judge whether or not a file "looks
like" Shrinkit or Binary II, lynx looks at the name of the file.  If the
name ends in .shk, .sdk, .bny, .bqy, or .bxy (or the uppercase equivalents
thereof), lynx will download the file in binary mode.

               - Neil Parker
-- 
Neil Parker                       | No cute quote, no cute ASCII art, no cute
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nparker@cie.uoregon.edu           | (This space intentionally left blank:
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