piccionek@EGLIN-VAX.ARPA ("KATHLEEN A. PICCIONE") (11/03/87)
To: Keith Peterson From: Kathy Piccione Subject: Archives on SIMTEL20 Keith, I received you message and had already read most of what you had sent. However, let me explain to you what I did and maybe you can help me. I used "FTP SIMTEL20.ARPA" and logged in as anonymous/guest. I did a bget (binary get) to download arc521.com to my VAX 11/780. I logged out of SIMTEL20 and proceeded to use my VAX to run XMODEM. I have a TANDY (IBM PC CLONE) the uses MIRROR (CROSSTALK CLONE). It supports XMODEM protocol as well. So I ran XMODEM on my VAX, issued the Send command, issued an RX (Receive XMODEM) command on my TANDY, and downloaded ARC521.COM. After logging out of the VAX I executed the command ARC521 and got garbage on the screen. That is where I stand. Along the way I downloaded ARC.EXE from <PC-BLUE> in the same manner and got a "Program too big to fit in memory" on my TANDY. I have 640k on my TANDY so I know there is plenty of room. I hope you might be able to help me. Thanks. Kathy(piccionek@eglin-vax.arpa) PS. My TANDY runs MSDOS 3.2. ------
WANCHO@SIMTEL20.ARPA ("Frank J. Wancho") (11/05/87)
Kathy, Please do not use "bget" or "type image" when transferring binary files from this host. Those two commands expect the host on the other end to also be a 32-bit word machine. This host is a 36-bit word machine, and the resulting file will be trash as you observed. The proper command it "type l 8" or its equivalent, "tenex." But, beware that some recent ftp programs have been appearing with "tenex" incorrectly implemented as a "type l 32" equivalent. If you have problems, as your local system wizard, and refer to this message. --Frank
abp@j.cc.purdue.edu.UUCP (11/05/87)
SIMTEL20 stores binaries in a funny way: it has a 36 bit word length, so it stores 4 8-bit bytes in each 36-bit word, the other 4 bits being zero filled. If you use a binary ftp, you get a direct copy of this, which is garbage for your computer. What you will need to do is to find out how (with your particular system) to make ftp do the translation from 36 bits to 4 8-bit bytes for you. On our 11/780 VAXen (4.3 bsd), one types the command "tenex" at the ftp prompt. I forget where the name comes from. You'll have to find out if there is something similar for your machine. Also, when you perform the file transfer to your Tandy, be sure that you put sending xmodem into binary mode; otherwise it will translate every occurence of ^J to ^M^J (file for text files, but it really mangles binaries). Jeff Wieland abp@j.cc.purdue.edu
FISHER@CICGE.RPI.EDU ("John S. Fisher") (11/10/87)
I do not know much about the FTP facilities on your VAX, but I do
know that there has been some historical confusion about the
appropriate TYPE command needed when fetching binary files. The
Tops-20 system (Simtel20) supports variable "byte" sizes, and it
is necessary to inform FTP what byte size is being used.
The archive blurb suggests TYPE L 8 (meaning an 8-bit byte)
for binary transfers. I have never gotten this to work on my
IBM host, but TYPE L 32 works just fine (plus one other command
to disable ASCII->EBCDIC translation). You might try preceding
the RETR command in FTP with TYPE. If your implementation does
not support the TYPE command, try QUOT TYPE L 32 (or 8).