From: teague@Apple.COM (Terry Teague)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
Subject: Re: Do any PC-based BBS programs support MacBinary?
Date: 16 Oct 92 02:59:56 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA

In article <Bw32C8.4KG@csn.org> wsmith@teal.csn.org (Walter Smith) writes:

>The subject line says it all. Currently, my company is using the Major BBS,
but
>when Mac callers upload files, the information of the separate resource and
daa
>forks are combined (?). When these uploaded files are transfered to a Mac, the
>generic icon shows up, and it's anyones guess what kind of file it is because
>you can't double-click it to launch.
>
>Any information would be greatly appreciated. Either email me or post here,
>although I don't get to read the news too often. Thanks.

As far as I know, ALL PC BBS software supports Mac files, in the same way,
and the problem you have is at the users end.

Specifically, I know the Major BBS works fine for Mac uploads, as I have
done it myself many a time, and have downloaded many a time (in case it
wasn't obvious, I am a Mac user).

It all revolves around the concept of MacBinary - a protocol for storing
Macintosh files on non-Macintosh machines (not to be confused with a
file transfer protocol like ZMODEM).

The encoding/decoding of the MacBinary protocol is done on the Mac end.
Anything that is not a Mac just sees the file as a stream of bytes that
they store in their native format. The only exception would PC BBS
software that somehow tries to interpret the file, such as truncating
a file after receiving a Control-Z, or converting <cr> to <cr><lf>.
This would be bad, and wrong.

I would suggest telling your Mac users to make sure the MacBinary option
(almost all Mac comms program have it, as an option) is turned on when
they download these files. It is possible that other things are wrong
on their end. The other possibility is that the files were uploaded
wrongly (as a binary and NOT MacBinary file) by a Mac user, or they were
simply transferred by a network from a Mac to a PC onto the BBS, without
taking into account the requirement to add the MacBinary header on the
way through (popular Mac/DOS networks such as TOPS should do this
automatically and transparently for you).

As a last resort it is sometimes possible to add/strip MacBinary headers
on either PC or Mac, using appropriate tools.

However after thinking about it for a moment, it is possible that your
users have download some Mac files that have been archived with something
like Compact PRO or StuffIt (or worse yet some other less popular format),
and they simply don't have the archiving program that is necessary to
unarchive their downloaded files, so double-clicking on the files does
nothing for them. If this is the case (and even if it is not), I suggest
Mac users get a hold of the FREE StuffIt Expander application, which can
be found on any popular online service (current version 1.0.1), and will
unarchive most of the popular archiving formats.

Hope this helps.
Regards, Terry Teague


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