From: dl1@ukc.ac.uk (Duncan Langford)
Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom
Subject: More Garbo (long!)
Date: 31 Jul 92 08:39:29 GMT
Organization: Computing Lab, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.


I feel it would be useful - and hopefully not a waste of bandwidth - to show
exactly what the Garbo CD-ROM actually SAYS in its introductory text files
- all needing modification to display properly on a Mac!

First, Walnut Creek instructions:

> Most of the files on this disc are in zip, zoo, arc, or lzh format.
> There are programs for extracting from these formats located in pc/arcers,
> pc/arcutil and mac/arcers.

> Some files are in tar or shar format.  Programs for extracting tar and shar
> files are in pc/unix/tar4dos.zoo, pc/unix/unshar.zip, mac/unix/tar.sit and
> mac/unix/unshar.sit

It was this file I spoke of as 'plain wrong' - I meant that a user anxious
to use an application would not find 'programs for extracting' in
'mac/arcers'. Oh, they were /there/. But needing extraction. So only if
the user could first extract the extractor, without help, could they use it.

Which seemed silly?

Would our confused user be helped by the original Garbo help file? Well,
no, they probably wouldn't; partly because Garbo understandably assumes
you're downloading via ftp, and partly because the text itself is a
little confused :

> FTP and GENERAL INFORMATION
> ************************************

> Files you find here  are usually Stuffit-files (MacBinary files) (file
> types  .sit, .bin, .cpt and .sea  are MacBinary, .zoo files are normal
> binary and .shar files Unix shell archived files).

> You need StuffIt to  unpack .sit  files and Compactor  to  unpack .cpt
> files. Or use Extractor  to unpack both. All  these   can be found  in
> mac/arcers dir.  .sea files are   Self-Extracting-Archives that is you
> can run them (applications) and they extracts.

> MacBinary is sort  of concept that Mac  OS likes the files  to be.  So
> when these  MacBinary  files are   trasferred as NORMAL    BINARY  the
> resource and data forks are combined together somewhat  dissimilar way
> as what happens when  transferring   them as MacBinary.  So   when you
> can't use MacBinary protocol REMEMBER USE BINARY.

> But if you  can't use MacBinary PROTOCOL  when downloading these files
> to  your  Mac you must use  a PROGRAM called  MacBinary to prepare the
> .sit files for Stuffit. But you must use binary  transfer in that case
> too. You can  find MacBinary program here  in BinHex  format, too.  So
> when you have downloaded the files as normal binary you  must run them
> also through this MacBinary program.


This information is ALL the Mac purchaser of the Garbo CDROM gets. I'm not
really surprised at subsequent problems... are you?

I accept that this was a cheap CD, that the original archive was copied
exactly, that goodwill positively oozed from the whole thing; good fellows,
all, no question.

But I'm still puzzled why Walnut Creek sent me a disk I couldn't use
without decyphering, when any Mac user could have written a simple
explanatory text file - and supplied an uncoded copy of a suitable
decoding application, as well. Yes, I know - but I didn't /want/ my money
back. Like most purchasers, I wanted a useable CD.

I believe it is vitally important for the future of CD-ROM that disks are
readily accessible, that new users are not discouraged by unnecessary
technical bullshit, that suppliers spend a little time thinking about the
people who will use their product.

And I apologise - of course I apologise - for unwarranted slurs. I 
emphatically DON'T apologise for raising this issue.

- duncan
Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom