Moving files II to Mac... advice needed

[jimdean@bnr.ca (Jim Dean)]

Greetings!

Having decided to upgrade from an Apple //c, a friend has just
purchased a Mac (Performa, I think). All her important files are on
DOS 3.3 5.25" disks, in Bank Street Writer format.  So she has two
conversion problems:

A. Moving files from 5.25" DOS 3.3 disks to Mac 3.5 disks.

   This is actually not a problem. I have a GS with a 5.25 drive and a
UniDisk 3.5. And I have GS/OS and ProSel and Finder.  I have
succesfully moved a bunch of her files from the 5.25 disk to the Mac
disk using the GS's Finder.  I couldn't do it with Prosel; it would
tell me the volume name for the dos disk was "/DOS 3.3 v0246", and it
would catalog it, and let me select files to copy, but then when it
went to copy it would say "Path not found".  But I digress... the
problem is solved by Finder but I'd like to know the ProSel solution
anyway.  Or any other easy solutions.

B. Changing file formats from Bank Street Writer to some Mac word
   processor

   - since she hasn't decided which one, I suggested we just go to
TEXT files which can be sucked in by any program she ends up
using. She hardly used any formatting instructions so we don't care
about the odd control character.

   But here is the problem... The Bank Street Writer files are
"binary". Not a very clever binary either, it is just ascii with the
high bit set.  So here are some solutions I've investigated:

1. Use BSW to convert Binary to text (they have a conversion program
which works on one file at a time, or she can open each file and
"print" it to a text file on disk). In either case, she'd have to do
hundreds of files on 10's of disks.  Not optimal, but it works. (We
tried it.  She converted BSW to TXT on DOS 3.3 and I moved the TXT
file to a Mac disk. Opened 'em with Word on a Mac. No problem.)

2. I have a Mac and a Sun w/s at work. I moved the BSW files from MAC
to Sun, used a simple command to turn all the high bits off, and spit
the file back to the MAC (with the bonus that I can set type to TEXT
and creator to any program she picks, thanks to "fetch").  Again, it
works, we've tested it, but it involves a lot of work in me bringing
disks to my work machines. So this is not optimal either.

3. Apple File Exchange on a MAC. Is there a translator out there, or
can anyone tell me how to do write one, so that when the file is
copied all the high bits are 0 (i.e. "and" each byte with 127?).  I
have had no luck with this solution, but it would be a nice one! Very
optimal!

4. Is there an easy way to write a program on a Mac which would allow
the user to select a file or set of files from a source directory and
re-write them in another destination directory, but with the
aformention high-bit unset?  Not being a mac hack, I'm not familiar
with any command line or scripting stuff their.

5. Or, even better, the most optimal solution would be a ProSel shell
script that would act as follows:

   read a list of files on a DOS 3.3 disk
   foreach file do
      open DOS 3.3 file for input
      open MAC HFS file for output (with file type TEXT)
      input chars from DOS file
      output chars, 'and'ed with 127, to file on Mac disk
      close files
   end

   An intermediate step might be O.K., like inputting from DOS 3.3,
saving to ProDOS, converting the ProDos file, and then copying the
ProDos file to a Mac disk.  Whatever works. Anybody know the ProSel
shell that well?

I'd be really interested in any comments you care to make.  My friend
may be giving up on her //c, but I'm not quiting on my GS!

Cheers,


-- 
Jim Dean          Northern Telecom Ltd - Telecom Microelectronics Centre
System Simulation              P.O. Box 3511 Stn C, Ottawa, Ont. K1Y 4H7
Internet: jimdean@bnr.ca                              Mail Stop: CRK 040
Phone: (613) 763-2135 FAX: 763-8112                        ESN: 393-2135