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From: w8sdz@smoke.BRL.MIL (Keith Petersen)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: UU/XXencode availability
Message-ID: <12211@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 22 Feb 90 21:27:01 GMT
References: <740@bbking.KSP.Unisys.COM>
Reply-To: w8sdz@wsmr-simtel20.army.mil (Keith Petersen)
Organization: The SIMTEL20 Archives
Lines: 32

[Richard Marks comments about UU/XX encode/decode programs]

Richard, one of the nicest variations I've seen on Usenet is the one
that includes a header just before the begin 644, called "table".  It
uses that key word on the left margin and the next two lines include
the actual ascii characters used for the encoding, in progressing
numerical order.  This is used by many binary newsgroups on Usenet.

The advantage is that the decode can automatically select the character
set, and error traps can be put in to exit if a character appears more
than once in the table (a sure indication of EBCDIC->ASCII conversion
errors).

The multi-part combining and error checking features of your Turbo
Pascal MSDOS program might become more popular if you were to release
a C language version which could be ported to Unix.  Even the TP sources
would be helpful.

This is one good example why withholding sources is detrimental to a
program becoming a popular world standard.  Example: it's likely that
Zmodem will become extinct because the sources for the latest version
are no longer freely distributable.  Users will not accept being locked
in to a propriatary protocol.  That means there is no "second source"
available in case the primary supplier is unable to deliver or goes out
of business.

Keith
-- 
Keith Petersen
Maintainer of SIMTEL20's CP/M, MSDOS, & MISC archives [IP address 26.2.0.74]
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