Re: Apple2 archive at grind.isca.uiowa.edu

[cz883@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Soren Carlson Spies)]

In a previous article, snelson@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (Steven Nelson) says:

>From article <28d4ne$ds6@altitude.HIP.CAM.ORG>, by vandry@CAM.ORG (Phillip Vandry):
>> jimwong@owlnet.rice.edu (Jim Wong) writes:
>> 
>>>>>2) Do you want
>>>>>   A) BSQ files only
>>>>>   B) SHK files only
>>>>>   C) Both SHK & BSQ in same directory
>>>>>   D) Both SHK & BSQ in seperate trees
>> 
>>>Of these choices, I prefer the ShrinkIt archives simply because
>>>BinSCII'd files are so huge.  What I'd really like to see, though,
>>>are Binary II-encoded ShrinkIt archives.
>> 
>> Why? I mean, what does that give you that plain .shk doesn't?
>
>No, not exactly.  .shk files on a foreign file system like unix are 'binary'
>files.  filetype ($e0 or LBR) and auxtype ($8002) are _not_ part of this file.
>You must explicitly set them on your download program if you want them
>that way, or change type later with a utility program.  A binary II file
>is a 'binary' file on any system.  When the binII wrapper is removed by
>the dnloading pgm or utility, the original filetype, auxtype, create and
>modify dates, etc. of the original file are restored.
>
	Okay, time to put my two cents in.  I ftp a lot of stuff through
a unix machine.  I would rather not have the bother of Binary II.  A
.shk file on a unix machine is binary, it could care less.  A .bsq file
is also binary (it only uses seven bits, and not even all of those
but..) and unix could care less.  I have a copy of a great little
program called sciibin, which was simple to compile and makes any .bsq
files unpack (inside, you almost always find a .shk anyway).  Here's my
point, once you get the .shk file back to your II (I never use .bsq
unless it is such a tiny file that the uploader didn't bother .shk'ing
before .bsq'ing) it doesn't matter what it's file type is.  Most
programs, including yankit (I think) and GS-Shrinkit look at the .shk
and say, "hey, this is probably for me."  Gs-Shrinkit 1.0.1's icons even
make everything look nice in the finder as they are set to anything.shk
(*.shk).  I can ftp a file a Mac at school, and then bring it home to
the GS (note that you have to use the binary option, if you have Fetch on
your mac, it will allow to you map the suffix .shk to be binary while
d/l'ing).  It will show up as a text file (if I xmodem it in) or $00 if
it's from a Mac.  The finder gives it an icon from GS-Shrinkit and it
will run GShk if you double click it.  Once unpacked, all files have
their correct types, etc.  It is pointless to doubly archive something
in this way.  I'm not sure, but I never remember Shrinkit (8bit)
complaining that the archive was not of the correct file type.  Let's
not mess with BinaryII, as no one should ever have to change file types
in the first place.



						-- Soren Spies
-- 
Soren Spies ------------------------"Straight outta Evanston"
sspies@dec1.eths.nwu.edu             Bulls WIN!!!!!
diskboy@aol.com                      Three-Peat 3 Pete Down in History.