mat65@tukki.jyu.fi (12/22/88)
I'm somewhat new to this scene, so I make stupid questions. Has anybody thought of expanding the BinHex 4.0 "hqx" format to include uuen/decode -like begin and end lines, and some sort of break facility, also like some versions of uuen/decode ? I am not too fond of the current format, as one can't very well tell if a line has been mistakenly edited off from the front, or even if you have the whole file. You have to download it to a Mac and then try it out. THEN you get a CRC error (after hours, well minutes at least of nervous waiting and slaving over a hot modem :-) Also, you have to use an editor to combine the parts of a larger posting together, and here klutzy-fingered people like me always lose. One quickie alternative (requiring no new programs and/or formats) would be to bracket the start and end of hqx files postings in comp.mac.binaries with lines like "--- BEGIN ---" and "--- END ---" so one could just extract the parts of a big posting to a single file, and then run it thru an awk-script or something similar to remove the headers and other extra lines, then upload the result over to a Mac (and then finally getting the CRC error :-) Does anyone know the format of hqx files, so one could build a small program in the mainframe to test the file's integrity (is Mr. Lempereur on the net) ? Are any of these suggestions already included in some software in existance ? Otto J. Makela (with poetic license to kill), University of Jyvaskyla InterNet: makela_otto_@jylk.jyu.fi, BitNet: MAKELA_OTTO_@FINJYU.BITNET BBS: +358 41 211 562 (V.22bis/V.22/V.21, 24h/d) Voice phone: +358 41 613 847 Mail: Kauppakatu 1 B 18, SF-40100 Jyvaskyla, Finland, EUROPE
denbeste@bgsuvax.UUCP (William C. DenBesten) (12/27/88)
From article <18355@santra.UUCP>, by mat65@tukki.jyu.fi: > Has anybody thought of expanding the BinHex 4.0 "hqx" format > to include uuen/decode -like begin and end lines, and some > sort of break facility, also like some versions of uuen/decode ? > > I am not too fond of the current format, as one can't very > well tell if a line has been mistakenly edited off from the > front, or even if you have the whole file. > > Does anyone know the format of hqx files, so one could build > a small program in the mainframe to test the file's integrity > (is Mr. Lempereur on the net) ? Are any of these suggestions > already included in some software in existance ? It is fairly easy to tell if you have a good file. The first line is preceeded with: "(This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0)" and begins with a colon. The last line has a colon at the end if it. There are no other colons in the file. All the lines are the same length, except for the last one, which is usually shorter. I have, however, seen a file that the last line is one character longer than the rest (due to the colon). Most of the bad files that I have seen are missing the end colon or have a line that is the wrong length. When a file is split for posting, the person doing the posting never splits in the middle of a line. Most news-muncher programs chop in the middle of a line. This makes it easy to tell if each part has arrived intact. Using the above rules, it is fairly easy to create a program that combines multiple parts into one file. I have seen two programs that do just this come across the net, comb and bhcomb. I am using bhcomb. Another program, again from the net, is xbin. Its purpose is to decode a binhex file on your mainframe, before you move it to your mac. Both of these programs are unbelievably useful. Most likely, someone at your site has already snarfed these and set them up. If you can't find them on your machine, they are available via anonymous ftp from sumex-aim.stanford.edu. -- William C. DenBesten denbeste@bgsu.edu