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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site cognos.UUCP
Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!glee
From: glee@cognos.UUCP (Godfrey Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Flight Simulator II (and uuencode mess-ups) [long]
Message-ID: <300@cognos.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 10-Jan-87 16:25:52 EST
Article-I.D.: cognos.300
Posted: Sat Jan 10 16:25:52 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 11-Jan-87 04:39:03 EST
References: <2280@well.UUCP> <340@oliveb.UUCP> <8232@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> <5017@amdahl.UUCP>
Reply-To: glee@cognos.UUCP (Godfrey Lee)
Distribution: net
Organization: Cognos Inc., Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 30
Summary: 

In article <5017@amdahl.UUCP> kim@amdahl.UUCP (Kim DeVaughn) writes:
(about improving uuencode/uudecode)
>.........  My gut feel is that a simple checksum on a per-line basis,
>and an end-of-file indicator (checksummed, of course) is probably the
>best compromise, as my experience has been that *most* of the time,
>a file either makes it OK, has a "hunk" of a line missing, or gets
>truncated.  But what do you think?

I think that you are correct. You also had reservation about getting a new
version accepted. The experience on the net is that if you can make a
demonstrable improvement (in this case, you CAN), and it is backward and
forward compatible, by that I mean old programs can read new files and new
programs can read old files, then it will be accepted. The vehicle for posting
such a program is mod.sources.

Another person thought that because the current uuencode/uudecode programs are
so dumb, that it would be possible to add information to the file and stay
compatible. I have noticed from the juggler posting that in fact any
information after column 64 (?) is ignored. I discovered this when I
re-uuencoded the defective binary to correct it, and noticed that the extra
character on the end of the defective line is gone.

So, a one character checksum at the end of each line will add only 1.56% to
the total length of the file, a reasonable price to pay.
-- 
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Godfrey Lee, Cognos Incorporated, 3755 Riverside Drive,
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA  K1G 3N3
(613) 738-1440				decvax!utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!glee
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