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From: ked@garnet.berkeley.edu (Earl H. Kinmonth)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: Tenex mode (was: Re: vi editor)
Keywords: ftp, tenex, binary downloads
Message-ID: <24935@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 27 May 89 05:55:28 GMT
References: <4253@crash.cts.com> <24928@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <6504@sdcsvax.UCSD.Edu>
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
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>Actually, that is only true of SIMTEL20.  If you download from grape, you'll
>need to set the "binary" mode, NOT the "tenex" mode, as is also true about
>almost every ftp site BUT SIMTEL20.  

Not only must you use tenex mode for downloads, you must switch to
ascii mode in order to do a directory listing or to download files that
are not in arc, compressed, or whatever format. This strikes me as a
singularly half-assed arrangement, especially since the system detects
when you try to do a dir with the tenex mode on. If the damn software
can detect this situation, why can't it flip the toggle itself?

I suppose complaining about SIMTEL20 falls into the category of looking
a gift horse in the mouth (or some other portion of its anatomy), but
given its apparent function, TOPS20 must be near, if not dead on, the
poorest OS choice for the system that could have been made. Could it be
that this system was acquired through the same mechanism that gives us
800 mega-buck planes that can be shot down by one misguided bird and
other triumphs of Pentagon procurement?