[comp.sys.mac.misc] GIFS WON'T WORK

dalnews@ac.dal.ca (Stuart Watson) (06/05/91)

Anybody know how the heck you get those stupid gif files
to show up as something????  

Is there a secret to bringing them from the mainframe to
my mac that I'm unaware of. I've tried to use gif converter and the
giffer (which won't unstuff, for some stupid reason). Gif converter
will convert paint files to gifs, but it won't open any bloody
gifs I've ftp'd... If I can't find a solution soon, I'm gonna
dump the whole frigging thing into my trashcan.(Yes, I'm 
somewhat frustrated!).....

Any hints??? Solutions?
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Stuart Watson                       DALNEWS@AC.DAL.CA
Public Relations                    SWATSON@ADM.DAL.CA 
Dalhousie University                (902) 494-1323
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
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<3IU4TOB@CMUVM.BITNET> (06/06/91)

I, also, have been unable to get Giffer (which I got from the Mac-Archives at R
ice) to unstuff.

cwwhite@vax2.concordia.ca (Stephen White) (06/07/91)

I trust that you know to change the transfer type to BINARY when FTPing your
GIFs.  To do this simply type "BINARY", this changes the file type from the
default ASCII, the reason for this is that GIFs are not Bin-Hexed and therefore
are not text files.  This means that when you download from your account
to your computer, you must also change the transfer to binary (NOT MACbinary).

Once you have downloaded the file, you need not unstuff it or Hex-Bin it, all
you have to do is use a program (I use GIF converter) and open the file from
within this application since the file type will not default to your
program and thus will not launch upon double-clicking.

I hope this helps, but I myself have been unable to download any binary files
from this USENET service!  I don't know how to change the transfer to binary,
or if it is even possible.  Has anyone out there ever downloaded a GIF from
USENET????!!

								--Stephen White

takahash@ntmtv.UUCP (Alan Takahashi) (06/18/91)

In article <413@daily-planet.concordia.ca> cwwhite@vax2.concordia.ca writes:
>[Explanation of how to FTP binary files deleted]
>
>I hope this helps, but I myself have been unable to download any binary files
>from this USENET service!  I don't know how to change the transfer to binary,
>or if it is even possible.  Has anyone out there ever downloaded a GIF from
>USENET????!!
>								--Stephen White

I have to admit, I'm totally confused here.  You can't 'download' a file
from Usenet...it has to have been posted by someone.  Usually, a binary
file (such as a GIF) would have been encoded using the "uuencode"
program to avoid corruption by the UUCP mailers.  An exception here
would be binaries which show up in comp.binaries.mac (they're in
Binhex 4.0 format).

To decode the posting, save it in a file, combine the parts (if it's
a multiple-part file), strip off the header information and type:

   uudecode <file>

This will decode the file and place it into another file (check the
first line of the encoded file to find the file name).

Regarding FTP, only Internet sites can do anonymous ftp.  We're not
one of them (sniff!)...

Does THIS help? :-)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alan Takahashi                          !       hplabs   amdahl
Northern Telecom Inc.                   !            \   / 
Mountain View, CA                       !UUCP:  ...!{-----}!ntmtv!takahash
                                        !              |   
"When you need to knock on wood is when !             ames
  you realize the world's composed of   !INTERNET:
  aluminum and vinyl." -- Flugg's Law   !    ntmtv!takahash@ames.arc.nasa.gov
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Charlie.Mingo@p4218.f421.n109.z0.FidoNet.Org (Charlie Mingo) (06/20/91)

takahash@ntmtv.UUCP (Alan Takahashi) writes:

AT> I have to admit, I'm totally confused here.  You can't 'download' a file
AT> from Usenet...it has to have been posted by someone.  

    Perhaps you should take a peek at alt.sex.pictures (no pun intended), 
which is a Usenet newsgroup filled with GIFs. I'll bet the poster is referring
to something along those lines. (Gifs are uuencoded and segmented when
distributed over Usenet.)


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