Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Decoding Sparc encoded files
Keywords: sparc encoding decoding
Message-ID: <4848@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 14 Dec 90 19:08:53 GMT
References: <1990Dec4.201638.5958@warwick.ac.uk> <1990Dec6.182301.4915@EE.Surrey.Ac.UK>
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 28

>I would also like to know this, could the answer please be posted.

Could the question be explained first?  What is a "SPARC encoded file"?

The question, as asked, was:

	I have tried uudecoding such a file and it creates a file of
	type 'arc' in my directory, but this is an invalid archive
	according to Unix.

Well, "uudecode" is pretty much the same between UNIXes (although there
are, on occasion, some annoying differences - but they have nothing to
do with SPARC!  Besides, they apparently successfully uudecoded the
file).

"arc" refers to, I think, some flavor of PC ARChiving software (called
"ARC"), which is most definitely not related to SPARC in any way, shape,
or form.  (I assume that by "a file of type 'arc'" the original poster
meant "a file with '.arc' as its suffix".)

It doesn't come with SunOS on SPARC (or any other Sun) machines, but
versions are, I think, available; try asking in "comp.sources.wanted"
(or some "eunet" equivalent, if it exists).

Or is "Sparc" unrelated to SPARC, as in "the architecture of the
microprocessors used by Sun and various other vendors", and instead some
Acorn-specific term (hence the appearance of the question in
"comp.sys.acorn")?