Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!sun-bear.lcs.mit.edu.lcs.mit.EDU!dcw
From: dcw@sun-bear.lcs.mit.edu.lcs.mit.EDU (Dave Whitney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Help with Downloading, etc.
Message-ID: <8907301842.AA08474@sun-bear.LCS.MIT.EDU.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Date: 30 Jul 89 18:42:28 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 47


All of these files are stored in text form on the server. Converting
them back into binaries is simple. Firstly, check the contents of the
file containing BinSCII. If there is mailer header stuff, then ignore
it. Look down in the file for either "CALL-151" or
"FiLeStArTfIlEsTaRt" on a line by itself. If you see CALL-151, then so
far, you're in good shape. (Please note that BinSCII was posted in
BOTH forms, so search the file for the CALL-151 if it's not at the
beginning.)  You now need to do two things: cut out all the crud
before the CALL-151 and after the line E00G (which appears at the end
of the file). If you plan to download the file to your apple by using
the Kermit protocol, then go ahead. Otherwise, you need to be sure
that the line terminator for each line is ONLY a chr$(13). Unix uses
chr$(10), TOPS-20 and IBM machines use both (CRLF). Use whatever
method you can to change the line terminators to JUST a CR. Then
download to your apple.

Now pop yourself into BASIC under ProDOS (this WON'T work from DOS
3.3) and EXEC the file. Moments later, you have a SYS file named
BINSCII.

Now, any file you see that has the "CALL-151" at the beginning, use
the same procedure described above. Any file with "FiLeStArTfIlEsTaRt"
at the beginning, simply download the file as-is (NO edits required)
and run BinSCII. U)nconvert the file back to ProDOS from inside
BinSCII, and POP, all set. Please note that files coded up with
BinSCII tend to be in fragments, so you must be sure to uncode all the
parts before the destination file can be considered OK. Also note that
BinSCII has a few brains. Any single text file it processes is allowed
to contain several chunks that each start with the "FiLe..." string.
Therefore, you may concatenate a whole bunch of files together and
unconvert them all at once.

As an aside, Executioner is good only for encoding files into text to
be sent across the networks. It has pretty much been replaced by
BinSCII, as BinSCII is more powerful than Executioner. It is possible
that you don't want Executioner at all.

Hope this helps...

	Dave

- -- 
Dave Whitney	A junior (well, a senior) in Computer Science at MIT
dcw@athena.mit.edu  ...!bloom-beacon!athena.mit.edu!dcw  dcw@goldilocks.mit.edu
I wrote Z-Link & BinSCII. Send me bug reports. I use a //GS. Send me Tech Info.
"This is MIT. Collect and 3rd party calls will not be accepted at this number."