[comp.protocols.misc] DCA format for text files.

peewee@ucschu.ucsc.edu (Paul Watson) (07/24/90)

I am trying to convert files from DOS Nota Bene to be used on MacIntosh
with Microsoft Word. Nota Bene(NB) has a special format called DCA which
it can use to save files.  It is supposed to be a standard format which
many programs use (haven't found another such program yet!).  I  thought
it would be like the RTF format that Word uses.

Unfortunately, when I create a DCA file with Nota Bene, I can't determine
if the text is there (all I really need is the text) because there is an
EOF character in the DCA format(ugh.)  I expect to find text in there
somewhere because the man at Dragon Fly Software (makers of NB) said
I should be able to see it with Norton Utilities.

Since I don't have access to Norton Utilities, I brought the file over to the
MacIntosh with Apple File Exchange.  Then when brought up in Word, absolutely
no text! Just lots of Foreign chars (ID>0x80).  So I ftp'd it (Using IP)
to Unix and looked at it with octal dump.  Still no text.  Last I tried
stripping off bit 8 with a c program.   I saw text, but it was nonsense.

Is DCA text stored in a non-ascii form?  Am I corrupting the data in my
file transfers?
How can I get ascii text out of a DCA file?
Is Nota Bene not creating the DCA file right?


Send help--
Thanks,

Paul Watson.  University of California, Santa Cruz.

dmiller@CS2.CS.WSU.EDU (07/24/90)

DCA/RFT is one of the many "standards" IBM has generously given the world.

As you have found, it is not anything like Microsoft's RTF format.

Luckily there is a solution.  There is a very good (and inexpensive) product
on the market called R-Doc/X which performs document conversions between
many wordprocessor formats.  Two of which are DCA/RFT and MS-Word!

R-Doc/X is available from:

Advanced Computer Innovations
30 Burncoat Way
Pittsford, NY 14534-2216

Phone: (716) 454-3188
Fax: (716) 383-8428


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peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) (07/24/90)

In article <5378@darkstar.ucsc.edu> peewee@ucschu.ucsc.edu (Paul Watson) writes:
> Is DCA text stored in a non-ascii form?

Yes, DCA text is stored in EBCDIC. Word Perfect uses DCA, too, and it's a
royal pain to convert it... not only is it EBCDIC, but it's one of those
IBM all-singing all-dancing kitchen-sink protocols. Probably not as bad as
Blue Glue (SNA), but pretty bad.

How it became a standard on the IBM-PC is something I *don't* want to know
about.
-- 
Peter da Silva.   `-_-'
+1 713 274 5180.   'U`
<peter@ficc.ferranti.com>