Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL
From: SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: RE:      Re: A solution to the Kermit unpacking problem
Message-ID: <8901120059.aa00337@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>
Date: 12 Jan 89 05:39:46 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 41

>I've always downloaded Kermit to my CMS hd under prodos and then used Copy2+
>to move it over to a DOS disk with no problems... Could it be Apple's old
>utility disk???
>
>Joe

I suspect Apple's CONVERT copies files from AS-IS (all 8 bits) from one
operating system format to the other without regard for file type.
NORMALLY, ProDOS 'TXT' files have the 8th bit off (zero, down, clear,
whatever), while DOS 3.3 'T' files have the bit set.  MOST (not all) DOS 3.3
software (word processors, whatever) don't care whether the 8th bit is
set or not (after all it's SUPPOSED to be a 7-bit file).  I have seen
some *strange* interpretations of the carriage return character when the
8th bit is the opposite of what's expected, but that's unusual.

I haven't done any real analysis of the EZ Install, but I suspect it uses
some of those cute "when is an EXEC file not an EXEC file" tricks described
in this month's Call-A.P.P.L.E.  The 8th bit seems to matter.

Text files downloaded with XModem (whether to ProDOS *or* DOS 3.3)
are unlikely to have the 8th bit set (the 8th bit off is the standard
used by MS-DOS, Commodore, Tandy, whatever) unless the commware has a
special option for setting the bit (some word processors will let you
"twiddle the bit" just by loading the file and saving it -- not all
that easy to do with a 55K file on an Apple :-)

Kermit-65 KNOWS a text file isn't a binary and sets the bit as appropriate
for the operating system (so does Copy II+ apparently -- Copy II+ might
even set the bit for a copy downloaded by XModem just by copying the
file from one disk to another).

Murph Sewall                       Vaporware? ---> [Gary Larson returns 1/1/90]
Prof. of Marketing     Sewall@UConnVM.BITNET
Business School        sewall%uconnvm.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu          [INTERNET]
U of Connecticut       {psuvax1 or mcvax }!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL     [UUCP]

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