Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!charon!jurjen
From: jurjen@cwi.nl (Jurjen NE Bos)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: Help on file transfer
Message-ID: <2770@charon.cwi.nl>
Date: 9 Jan 91 15:19:09 GMT
References: <0A527C0B8000005A@gacvx1.gac.edu> <7360038@hpfcso.HP.COM>
Sender: news@cwi.nl
Lines: 18

rrd@hpfcso.HP.COM (Ray Depew) writes:

>Nope, it's at the last link in the chain:  the calculator.  According to the
>owner's manual, "A receiving HP 48 treats all files as ASCII unless they match
>the special encoding generated for HP 48 binary files.  The calculator will
>automatically switch to binary receive mode for files with this encoding."
>I don't think that's true.  I think you have to set binary manually -- at least
>that's what we've all been doing since Day One.

I doesn't matter what mode your HP48 is in.  The manual is absolutely right.
What is the case, is that the file has been sent in ASCII form at least once
in the chain.  This modifies the file a tiny bit, but so much that the HP48
recognized it has been modified.  It will try to receive it as binary, but
fail.  The result is then put in a string.

So remember: if you have a binary file, handle it in binary mode with EVERY
program in the chain!  You lose information that you can't get back!
(And don't blame the calculator... it is just doing its work :-)