Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!coherent!dplatt
From: dplatt@coherent.com (Dave Platt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: BinHex4 bug?
Message-ID: <26729@coherent.com>
Date: 20 Jun 89 17:53:31 GMT
References: <610@sys.uea.ac.uk>
Reply-To: dplatt@coherent.com (Dave Platt)
Organization: Coherent Thought Inc., Palo Alto CA
Lines: 26

In article <610@sys.uea.ac.uk> jrk@uea-sys.UUCP (Richard Kennaway) writes:
>
> Is this a known bug?  Is there a fix?  (Cheaper, that is, than buying
> Stuffit - up to now, I've used the freeware BinHex4 and UnStuffit.)
> 

It's a known bug.  I first heard about it when people had trouble
decoding part of my MandelZot fractal-application posting earlier this
year.  One of the files could be decoded with StuffIt, but not with
BinHex 4.0.

Somebody followed up on the problem by contacting the author of BinHex
4.0, and learned that there is indeed a bug in BinHex.  It rears its
head when the length of the encoded filename exceeds some limit (longer
than 27 characters, I think)... BinHex becomes confused and won't decode
the file.

I doubt that BinHex will ever be fixed... we'll simply have to live with
the problem, avoiding it by using shorter filenames or working around it
by using StuffIt to decode files.

-- 
Dave Platt    FIDONET:  Dave Platt on 1:204/444        VOICE: (415) 493-8805
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