keegan@yale.UUCP (Edward Keegan) (08/03/88)
I'm new to the world of the Mac (formerly a PC user). Where can I obtain copies of BinHex and the resource editor on floppy. Also, can someone provide documentation on extracting binaries from the net. Thanks in advance... --ed
marc@rna.UUCP (Marc Johnson) (08/05/88)
In article <34866@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> keegan@yale-celed.UUCP (Edward Keegan) writes: > >I'm new to the world of the Mac (formerly a PC user). Where can I obtain >copies of BinHex and the resource editor on floppy. Also, can someone >provide documentation on extracting binaries from the net. Thanks in advance... > Me too, please! All these goodies and no way to get at 'em! -Marc rna!marc@ROCKVAX or marc%rna@rockefeller.edu
drew@cup.portal.com (08/27/88)
Me, three. C'mon, can't someone help?
drew@cup.portal.com (08/29/88)
I received the following (thanks, Tony!): --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: t-jacobs@cs.utah.edu (Tony Jacobs) Message-Id: <8808280114.AA17010@cs.utah.edu> To: drew@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: BinHex/ResEdit availability Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac In-Reply-To: <8483@cup.portal.com> References: <34866@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> <186@rna.UUCP> Organization: University of Utah CS Dept Cc: You can anonymous FTP it from ix1.cc.utexas.edu in the 'pub' directory. It's in a binhexed Auto-UnStuff format. Just unhex it and start it up and it un- Stuffs itself. -- p Tony Jacobs * Center for Engineering Design * U of U * t-jacobs@ced.utah.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Now, the only problem is that I don't understand it. However, via some experimenting, and some help from LaserMan@cup.portal.com (thanks, LM!), I've learned some in the last day or two. N.B. This does NOT make me an expert. Apparently, usenet cannot handle binary files. So, instead, people convert binary files to "hex" files, which are really ascii files in which the ascii characters represent hex digits; e.g., instead of the value of (say) escape (which is 1B hex) stored as one byte, it is stored as two bytes, with the first one ascii 1 (hex 31), followed by a second byte represented ascii B (hex 72). Get it? So, binary to hex really means binary to an ascii representation of the binary for syustems that can handle only ascii files. Also, I'm told that usenet limits file (article) size to something like 40KB, so most executables (binaries) have to be broken into separated files and recombined. Program BinHex (version 5.0) does the translation of binaries to/from so-called hex (really ascii) format. Program StuffIt and Unstuffit combine and split large files into pieces, and by the way, also do compression of the data, to reduce the time to transfer and the space to store. Portal (which is what I'm using) has a BBS which can store Macintosh Binary format (MacBinary format) directly. MacBinary, I think, is the original binary plus some header information describing things like name, creator, size, etc., and maybe some stuff about resource/data fork (something weird in the Mac file system: files are split into two logical parts, or forks). So, you can download directly from portal and it just works. No binhex, stuffit, or other junk. Portal Communications Company 19720 Auburn Dr. Cupertino, CA 95014 (408) 973-9111 (voice) (408) 725-0561 (data) accessible via telenet, cheap,good, etc. The comm program I'm using for downloading is Red Ryder. V9.4 is shareware available on Portal. V10.3 is commercial. It understands MacBinary. Freesoft Co. 150 Hickory Dr. Beaver Falls, PA 15010 Based on the above, I don't see how you could download BinHex from usenet in readyu-to-use form. It would have to somehow be encoded into ascii, and you would need a decode program, which brings you back to where you started. Chicken and egg. So, you could join portal. Or, another suggestion would be to look for Mac user groups. They probably could help you. There's probably a list of them somewhere on usenet, but I'm too new to it to know where. Good luck.
tedj@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Ted Johnson) (08/30/88)
>Me, three. > >C'mon, can't someone help? There are only 2 ways to get BinHex: (1)from a human (e.g, a friend, a user group, etc.) (2)from a BBS It wouldn't make sense to send it via e-mail, because then it would already be encoded in BinHex format (chick and egg problem). -Ted
tedj@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Ted Johnson) (08/31/88)
>Based on the above, I don't see how you could download BinHex from >usenet in readyu-to-use form. It would have to somehow be encoded into >ascii, and you would need a decode program, which brings you back to where >you started. Chicken and egg. Correct. >So, you could join portal. Or, another suggestion would be to look >for Mac user groups. They probably could help you. There's probably >a list of them somewhere on usenet, but I'm too new to it to know where. A much easier way to get BinHex 4.0 would be to send BMUG (Berkeley Macintosh User's Group) $4.00 and ask them for the diskette with this on it. I don't have their phone # or address handy; maybe someone else on the net does... -Ted
t-jacobs@utah-cs.UUCP (Tony Jacobs) (09/01/88)
In article <870221@hpcilzb.HP.COM> tedj@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Ted Johnson) writes: > >There are only 2 ways to get BinHex: > (1)from a human (e.g, a friend, a user group, etc.) > (2)from a BBS > and ...(3)in straight binary form. Providing your on a net that supports it. -- Tony Jacobs * Center for Engineering Design * U of U * t-jacobs@ced.utah.edu
yeung@june.cs.washington.edu (Ricky Yeung) (09/01/88)
In article <870221@hpcilzb.HP.COM>, tedj@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Ted Johnson) writes: > There are only 2 ways to get BinHex: > (1)from a human (e.g, a friend, a user group, etc.) > (2)from a BBS > > It wouldn't make sense to send it via e-mail, because then it would > already be encoded in BinHex format (chick and egg problem). > > -Ted There is a program called 'xbin' (developed at Brown Unvi., I think) that decodes BinHex files on the UNIX side. The decoded files (.info, .data, .rsrc) can then be downloaded via 'macput'. Actually that would save you 20-30% of time than downloading the original BinHex file. So one alternative to get BinHex if you're on a UNIX system: 1. Ask someone to send you 'xbin' and 'macput' if they are not in your system. 2. Ask someone to send you BinHex in BinHex format vie e-mail. 3. 'xbin' the BinHex file. 4. 'macput' the decoded files. If you have 'macput' only, you can ask someone to send you the decoded files. (binary files can be sent via e-mail by the uuencode/uudecode programs) Hope that helps. -Ricky yeung@june.cs.washington.edu
macman@ethz.UUCP (Danny Schwendener) (09/10/88)
In article <5688@utah-cs.UUCP> t-jacobs@cs.utah.edu.UUCP (Tony Jacobs) writes: >>There are only 2 ways to get BinHex: >> (1)from a human (e.g, a friend, a user group, etc.) >> (2)from a BBS >and ...(3)in straight binary form. Providing your on a net that supports it. There is still another way: Years ago, we received Source programs for MS-Basic and Mac Pascal (/LSP/MPW/TML) which, when compiled and run, created a copy of BinHex 4.0. Yes, we still have it (on a VAX backup tape). -- Danny +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Mail : Danny Schwendener, ETH Macintosh Support Center | | Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, CH-8092 Zuerich | | Bitnet : macman@czheth5a UUCP : {cernvax,mcvax}ethz!macman | | Ean : macman@ifi.ethz.ch Voice : yodel three times | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+