From: titus@smith.phys.ucalgary.ca (Titus Mathews)
Subject: Help!  How do I transfer archived files to my isolated Mac?
Date: Tue, 05 Jan 93 20:06:26 GMT
Organization: Institute for Space Research

Hi!  I am haveing trouble in transferring some archive software to a
Mac, and then getting to run.  The full story:

My roomate has just bought a Mac LCII.  I want to get some of the 
software that is stored in the Info-Mac archive at 
sumex-aim.stanford.edu up and running on this Mac.  The programs in 
this archive are stored as blahblah.hqx.  I read the the access 
information file and discover that I need to use a program called 
Binhex 4.0.  It so happens that binhex4.bin is stored in the archive.  
Great!

I ftp the programs I want over to my UNIX account.  Then, because 
we do not use Macs here at work, I ftp them onto a MS-DOS 5.0 platform, 
and from there, copy it onto a floppy disk.  We don't have a modem at 
home, nor are we in any real contact with any other Mac users.

I go home, and using the Apple File Exchange (??  whatever the 
application that allows you to translate DOS disks to Mac format is) 
I transfer the binhex4.bin (which I presume is the binary for 
binhex 4.0) and the .hqx files on the floppy onto the Mac hard drive.  
Unfortunately, the Mac thinks that the binhex4.bin is a document, 
and therefore I can't execute it (I tried.  the message I got said 
something like can't find the application that created this document).   
Hmmm..........

Next day, I try the computer store here at the University.  They have
a copy of Binhex 5.0 which they let me have.  This was copied from a
Mac onto a Mac-formatted disk.  I go home, and after some playing
around (I don't know exactly what I did) I manage to convert the
binhex4.bin file into an executable version!!  Yes!  I wanted to use
binhex 4.0 in the first place because the information access file in
the archive said NOT to use binhex 5.0 because it was not compatible
for "some very brain-damaged reasons".  Great!!  I think I'm making
progress here, cause now I have a seemingly executable version of
BinHex 4.0!!  Well, I try 'uploading' (or is it 'downloading') one of
the .hqx files and immediately I get $0000 CRC error.  Dandy.....  I
try another file, and again I get a CRC error.

I work with computers, and have some familiarity with data handling
software.  So I assume that the CRC error indicates that the .hqx
files have been corrupted.  In the process of getting the files onto
our Mac (ftp->UNIX account, ftp->MS DOS, copy to MSDOS floppy, Apple
Exchange Whatever->Mac format, binhex the transformed file), I see a
lot of opportunities for the final product to be corrupted.  Each
stage in the process has various options.  I am quite familiar with
FTP, and fairly familiar MS DOS, but I have next to NO familiarity 
with the Mac end of things.  Can someone suggest:
   a.  What it is I may be doing wrong.
   b.  What options do I have to set/not set in each of the Mac
       related stages (Apple Exchange, binhex)
   c.  Anything else I need to be aware of.

At this time, this is the only avenue I have to transfer software, and
I would really like to use some of the stuff stored on the archive.
Your recommendations are greatly appreciated!

Please email me directly at titus@phys.ucalgary.ca, as I don't read
news as often as I used to. However, I will check once in a while to
see if there have been any postings in response to my request.

Thank you very much in advance!


Cheers!

T.  =8)