Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 alpha 4/15/85; site amdcad.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!amdcad!jimb From: jimb@amdcad.UUCP (Jim Budler) Newsgroups: net.wanted.sources,net.micro.mac Subject: Re: BinHex X.X version 1.0 Message-ID: <1247@amdcad.UUCP> Date: Sat, 4-May-85 18:06:12 EDT Article-I.D.: amdcad.1247 Posted: Sat May 4 18:06:12 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 5-May-85 04:04:23 EDT References: <228@sdcc13.UUCP> Reply-To: jimb@amdcad.UUCP (Jim Budler) Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Sunnyvale, CA Lines: 64 Xref: watmath net.wanted.sources:803 net.micro.mac:1274 In article <228@sdcc13.UUCP> ee163ahe@sdcc13.UUCP (VICTOR ROMANO) writes: >[] > Before seeing BinHex 5.0 posted on the net, I never realized > that there was any incompatibility between the various binhexes. > I just figured that each different one has different "features", > and once I got a version that worked, I didn't bother anymore. > > Now I haven't loaded very much software onto my Mac yet, but > have loaded some, and some of the transfers were successful > while others weren't. I never knew what to blame for all those > that failed, and I didn't want to take the time to figure out > the problem because it would probably take me less time to > rewrite the program than to figure out how to load it properly. > > Now, since there are several versions, I have to check every > file before I download it to make sure that I have the proper > BinHex. Boy, what a real pain. I also have to get all those > old BinHexes that I never bothered to save (I only saved, > I think, BinHex 2.0. Or is it 3.0? Or is it 2.37?) > > How about someone make a BinHex that has the following specifications: > > 1) By looking at the context of the file, figures out > its BinHex format, and uncompacts it according to > that format. > > 2) Is easily expandible. That is, if someone makes > a change and a file is sent on the net with yet > another new format, the old program will still > be able to read it! > > This whole thing would be a lot easier if, in every BinHex file, > there is a field which indicates the format which it was converted. > But, they do .... BinHex 1 was straight 8 bits to 2 ascii character encoding, as was BinHex.Bas (otherwise known as v3.0. BinHex 2 and 2.1 did some compression. They could encode format 2 (known as .hcx or format 1 same as above) and decode both. BinHex 4 and 4.1 used even more compression and avoided earlier problems with trailing space characters. They encode format 4, and decode format 1, 2 and 4. (Three was skipped because of the MBasic version). BinHex 5 encodes MacBinary (8-bit) and decodes format 1, 2, 4, and MacBinary. Because of the 8-bit path required, I hope we don't start seeing to many people posting to the net with MacBinary as there will be a lot of broken postings floating around. So all you have to keep of the BinHexes is BinHex 4 for the net and BinHex5 if you deal with Compuserve. -- Jim Budler Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (408) 749-5806 UUCPnet: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amdcad!jimb Compuserve: 72415,1200 "... Don't sue me, I'm just the piano player!...."