[net.micro.apple] Fromhex.bas problem

kim@analog.UUCP (Kim Helliwell ) (09/10/84)

     I tried this weekend to use fromhex.bas (downloaded from fa.info-mac)
to convert fromhex (recently posted by Mike Ward to net.sources).  There is
a problem somewhere--the program reads a couple of records and then gives
an illegal function call error.  Investigation shows that the ASC function
is being called with a null string, which in turn appears to be related to 
the fact that a "pointer" to the data from disk has run past the end of the
data.

     I played around with this a while and finally made the program check
for this condition and read what I hoped was the next record.  This let
the program complete, and gave me a program named "C prog", as billed.
But "C prog" is 0 bytes long!  So something is still not right.

     Has *anyone* been able to get fromhex.bas to do its thing correctly?
If so, I would appreciate hearing from you!

     Incidental question:  Why are the records of the fromhex.dl file
66 bytes long, when one wants to read these records in groups of four or
eight bytes?  Are those "leftover" bytes a checksum, or something?


Kim Helliwell
{menlo70,hplabs}!analog!kim