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From: lefty@TWG.COM
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: MacNFS vs AppleShare
Message-ID: <9011161241.aa27485@Mercury.TWG.COM>
Date: 16 Nov 90 21:03:40 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 45

Steve Dorner writes:
>
>In article <27430546.6B52@intercon.com> kdb@macaw.intercon.com (Kurt Baumann) 
>writes:
>>Yes.  Both can be changed in an AppleSingle file.
>
>With GREAT pain and suffering, right?  Don't you have to rewrite practically
>the entire file in the worst case?  So the entire file has to traverse
>the network twice (or does the NFS protocol allow you to tell the server to do
>some things locally?).
>
>AppleSingle is an icky way to run a filesystem, unless you KNOW you will only
>be playing with one fork, or so it seems to me.

Yeah, we pretty much agreed with you on this one.  Too much overhead and
agita involved in supporting AppleSingle.  Bottom line: we dont do it.  If
theres sufficient demand (we havent seen it yet) well consider it, but I
think a better solution would be a UNIX utility to convert those pesky
AppleSingle files into AppleDouble format.

>>> 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.
>
>Uh, how do you decide if a UNIX file is a text file?  Or a mac file for that
>matter; there are some applications that create text files that have creators
>other than 'TEXT' (TeachText comes to mind)?

Again, our product doesnt fiddle with EOL conversion for exactly this
reason.  I would imagine that Intercon is using the execute bit to
"determine" what is and isn't a text file; in my view this is both suspect
and risky.  We offer a TeachText work-alike called NetText, which tries to
be a little intelligent about EOL conversion: it determines the EOL
convention in force and will translate to another if requested to do so. 
Safer all around, to my way of thinking.

>Now, for my own question: Does your product work with MacTCP?  If it
>does, I may be a customer.  If it doesn't, I have suddenly lost interest...

Of course it does.  I wouldnt have it any other way.

David N. Schlesinger (lefty@twg.com)   |
Sr. Software Engineer                  |   "And you may ask yourself,
The Wollongong Group                   |     'How do I work this?'"
415/962-7100                           |