MLADAIR@MTUS5.BITNET (PHANTOM) (02/14/90)
I have been trying to download files from a couple of FTP sites using
Kermit 2.2 but I haven't had any luck. I never know when to use ASCII
or Binary. And how do I unARC files? When I finally do get a file
downloaded to my disk, it doesn't run, even if it is supposed to be
an executable file. Can anyone help me. By the way, I am using a
C-128D computer, if it matters.
Thankyou,
Matt Adair MLADAIR@MTUS5.BITNETscott@max.u.washington.edu (02/15/90)
In article <90045.015733MLADAIR@MTUS5.BITNET>, MLADAIR@MTUS5.BITNET (PHANTOM) writes: > I have been trying to download files from a couple of FTP sites using > Kermit 2.2 but I haven't had any luck. > I never know when to use ASCII > or Binary. Well...one good generality to follow is that files ending with ".doc", ".txt", or ".readme" are of type ASCII. Since these files are of type ASCII you DO NOT have to wait until they are downloaded to the C64 to be read. They can be read from the system as soon as you GET these files from the FTP-site. Well that was the idea of these ascii files in the first place. Before you commit yourself in downloading a file to the C64, you can read these infomation-files beforehand to findout more about the program in question and decide whether or not to go ahead and download it to the C64. This way there is less likelyhood of a major "let down", and also save some of your valuable time in the process in unwanted software. :-) But then again, presently most of the programs in the FTP-sites are worthy of having them. :-) > And how do I unARC files? If you are using arc2.30 or arc2.50, after running the program type: arc/x/a <filename> to extract all the files in <filename>. This is the only command I know. You can get a full documentation about arc2.30 from UX-Maze mail-server. For deARCing, most of the times, I use arcaid7.1. This is a menu driven version of arc. Although according to the documentation, this is suppost to make the process of ARCing and deARCing easier, it still require some getting-use-to of the menu commands. When using arc or arcaid, having two drives can sometimes be very helpful. This is because, when deARCing with a single drive, there will be times when an ARCed file is large enough that during deARCing there is not enough space in one disk to place all the extracted files (remember the disk already has the original ARCed file occupying some space). And this is the case of "blazinforth.arc", a complete forth-83 compiler for the C64. In this cases what you have to do is to extract the files one at a time. And then transfer the extracted file to another disk to make room for the next one. With two drives, this is not a problem. ASIDE: With Lynx (another popular archiving program) this type of disk space problem doesn't occur. When Lynxing several files, it does not do it by creating a separate LNXed file but instead it modifies the directory of the disk so that the computer now will see, instead of the several files, only one file, and the information on how to reconstruct the directory so that the original files will reappear is placed at the beginning of the LNXed file. When time for deLynxing comes, it modifies the directory of the disk containing the LNXed file using the directory restoration information at the begining of the LNXed file, so that now when computer sees the directory it will see all the original files. This process of tingering with the directory that Lynx does is much much faster than having to created a separate archived file like Arc does. This means, with lynx, you can Lynx and deLynx almost an entire disk with one drive with problem, which is not the case with Arc. This is why some people find it Lynx superior than Arc. But this doesn't mean that lynx doesn't have any disadvantages over Arc. Arc gives you file compression, and with that, it also gives you a file corruption detector during deArcing. With lynx you have none of these......... well you can have all in life, could you.... :-) > When I finally do get a file [using Kermit2.2] > downloaded to my disk, it doesn't run, even if it is supposed to be > an executable file. Can anyone help me. By the way, I am using a > C-128D computer, if it matters. When using Kermit, did remember to set the type of file transfer to binary? With kermit, you also need to tell your host-kermit what the type of the file is by typing: set file type binary AND ALSO need to tell it to the C64 kermit by typing: set file-type binary (note the "-" between "file" and "type") With Kermit, it always advisiable to always set the file type to binary since there is no drawback even when you are transfering ascii files. Now your set to begin transfer.......engage and good luck. > Thankyou, > Matt Adair MLADAIR@MTUS5.BITNET Sincerely, Scott K. Stephen