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From: rek@sei.cmu.edu (Bob Kubiak)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: MacNFS vs AppleShare
Summary: Is NFS/Share's text tranlation "optional"?
Message-ID: <9575@fy.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 16 Nov 90 18:32:46 GMT
References: <4665@husc6.harvard.edu> <1990Nov10.100943.1166@urz.unibas.ch> <273EDDB5.40D1@intercon.com> <1990Nov13.091518.1171@urz.unibas.ch> <274043EF.4F0E@intercon.com> <9160@ncar.ucar.edu> <27430546.6B52@intercon.com>
Reply-To: rek@sei.cmu.edu (Bob Kubiak)
Organization: Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 32

In article <27430546.6B52@intercon.com> (Kurt Baumann) writes:
>> Do you handle CR-to-LF translation of text files so that I can edit an NFS 
>> mounted text file from the UNIX side with UNIX tools and from the Mac side with Mac tools?
>> If so, how do you decide when to do the translation?
>> 
>
>Yes, if it is a Macintosh text file we translate CR-to-LF when output and
>reverse on input.  The UNIX text files are also treated this way.  This allows
>you to use any Macintosh text editor or word processor to edit you UNIX files,
>and still be able to edit them from the UNIX side with no problem.  (ie;
>you don't need a seperate editor on the Mac :-)).


I wasn't sure if there was an answer to the "How do you decide when..."
question in your answer.  Can your product tell the difference between UNIX
text files and binary files (say, with some sort of file extension mapping)
or is everything created on the UNIX side interpreted as a text file (as the
Gatorbox does)?  And if there's no differentiation, is it possible to turn
off this text translation.  As an example, we use FrameMaker on UNIX systems
as well as Macintoshes.  If people try to edit or copy the UNIX-created
(binary) FrameMaker files from their Macintosh via the Gatorbox, unless
translation is off the files get "translated" on their way over, hosing them
up but good.  Some other products (we won't mention here) do this
translation automatically, don't make distinctions between types of UNIX
files, and don't allow the text translation to be turned off.  This can make
working with cross-platform applications that generate/use binary files less
than fun (can you say "FTP"?).

_Bob Kubiak
 Software Engineering Institute
 Carnegie Mellon University
 rek@sei.cmu.edu