info-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac) (07/26/84)
From: Bill Croft <croft@safe>
From: Mark H. Nodine and Bill Croft
Back in the days before macput/macget, programs were downloaded to the
Mac by saving the MacTerminal scrolloff in a file, and running a
program on the Mac called "fromhex" that converted this hex file to a binary
resource file.
People still distribute their programs in this (.dl) format
because it can be sent through the mail or ftped in ASCII mode.
Here is a version of "fromhex" for UNIX:
----
/* fromhex.c, UNIX version */
#include <stdio.h>
int bytes,sum;
main()
{
register i,v;
register n;
n = 0;
v = 0;
while ((i = getchar()) != EOF) {
i &= 0177;
if (i == '|')
break;
if (i < 0100 || i > 0117)
continue;
v = (v << 4) | (i & 0xF);
if ((++n & 1) == 0) {
putchar(v);
sum += v;
v = 0;
bytes++;
}
}
n = 0;
for (i = 0 ; i < 8 ; i++)
n = (n << 4) | (getchar() & 0xF);
if (n != (bytes + sum))
fprintf(stderr, "bad checksum\n");
else
fprintf(stderr, "checksum good!\n");
exit(0);
}
This program is a filter, so you should invoke it something like
fromhex <neatprog.dl >neatprog.rsrc
macput -r neatprog.rsrc
This halves the amount of time it takes to download neatprog.
P.S. Thanks to so many of you who are providing programs for downloading!