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

[lwv26@cas.org (Larry W. Virden)]

In article <1993Sep24.151111.6472@news.weeg.uiowa.edu>,
Steven Nelson <snelson@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu> wrote:
:From article <27ueu8$def@kruuna.Helsinki.FI>, by cust_ts@kruuna.Helsinki.FI (Tero Sand):
:    ... my comments about dirs instead of suffixes deleted ...
:> 
:> I for one would like to cut *unnecessary* directories out. I'd find it
:> ridiculous, if I want to find an NDA for example, to have to search
:> three directories (GS/binscii/nda, GS/shk/nda, and GS/binscii/shk/nda)
:> to find it.
:> Another point. GSHK shows, by default, only those files which are of
:> correct file type *and* those which end in '.SHK'. If 'correct' suffixes
:> aren't used, the downloader has to either rename the file, set the
:> filetype, or click the "show all files" radio button in the dialog box.
:> Not much work, perhaps, but after you do it a few times it becomes
:> annoying.
:> 
:
:Tero is right, of course, about .shk files.  I never intended to strip those
:suffixes off, but my post didn't look that way.  I still don't want to use
:suffixes for binscii files in most cases.  Sometimes it will be called for,
:and I'd suggest using .bsc (binscii), .bsk (binscii/shrinkit), or .bsd
:(binscii/shrinkit disk archive).  I'm so _old_ that .bsq will always mean
:'binary squeezed' - ie. a 'squeezed file with a Binary II header'.  I believe

What is the purpose of the suffix - to tell someone how to extract info
from the file?  Seems like a simple text file containing info would be
much more helpful .  Otherwise you are going to have to have so many combos
of extensions that you never will get done.  What if the file is zip'd, or
lha'd or gzip/tar'd?  What if the file can only be extracted by gshk, or is
in hexbin format?  If you look in the FAQ, at one time I had about 2 dozen
extensions folks had to know about - I doubt seriously that if the list is
being maintained properly that there will be less than that.

Having a single set of documents which guide a new user in how to extract
files in a tutorial manner is crucial.  Having a directory of tools for
manipulating the various extensions is also crucial - perhaps a getting
started type disk of the month, so that a user can get all the tools 
in a format easily usable to get additional tools and utilities.
-- 
:s 
:s Larry W. Virden                 INET: lvirden@cas.org
:s Personal: 674 Falls Place,   Reynoldsburg, OH 43068-1614