Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!ames!amdahl!cerebus!dalea
From: dalea@cerebus.UUCP (Dale M. Arends X5706)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Stuffit 1.31 and binhex
Message-ID: <593@cerebus.UUCP>
Date: 2 Feb 88 21:37:31 GMT
References: <10319@ufcsv.cis.ufl.EDU> <2689@dasys1.UUCP> <763@PT.CS.CMU.EDU> <2794@dasys1.UUCP> <305@nikhefk.UUCP>
Reply-To: dalea@cerebus.UUCP (Dale M. Arends X5706)
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac
Organization: Fujitsu America, Inc.
Lines: 46
Keywords: StuffIt

In article <305@nikhefk.UUCP> keeshu@nikhefk.UUCP (Kees Huyser) writes:
[Stuff deleted about putting intelligence into Stuffit]
>
>Raymond,
>You could have StuffIt look for the first colon after the line that
>starts with :
>
>(This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0)
>
>:THISISABINHEXEDFILEWITHALLSORTSOFUNREADABLESTUFF....
>
>This way you are always sure you start at the beginning of the .hqx 
>file.
>
>-- Kees

NO!  Ray, please don't do that!  Except for the mandatory colons to denote
the start and end of the encoded section, there should not be any literal
matching.  If this were done, then the header (or leading lines) would have
to match.  This would then define a new file format, i.e. one with a specific
line of text followed by characters enclosed between colons.

Also, to expect that the starting colon will ALWAYS be in column one reduces
the convenience of StuffIt since it requires that the CR/LF pair (on UNIX)
be replaced with a CR (on Mac) prior to decoding.  While several terminal
programs do this, being able to work either way is, in my mind, a definite
plus.

I admit that I have it somewhat easier than some since out news software
allows saving a posting without the news headers.

My point here is that to incorporate limits within the program to solve 
specific, non-universal problems will limit the general flexibility of a
fine program.

P.S.  I am running 1.30, so if you have a spare copy of 1.31 (or later, I'll
be a beta site if you need one (hint..hint)) ... :-)


-- 
--
		Dale M. Arends  (Fujitsu America Inc., San Jose, Calif.)
		{...}!amdahl!cerebus!dalea

The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.
They are entirely my own if they make sense and I disavow them if they don't.