Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!NIHCU.BITNET!JDA From: JDA@NIHCU.BITNET (Doug Ashbrook) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: Possible Executioner replacement... Message-ID: <8805311708.aa19483@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA> Date: 31 May 88 20:16:59 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 25 > Yes, one is going to need binscii to un-convert files. Not a real hardship, > I'll distribute binscii in executioner format. eventually, it will replace > executioner. Those who don't have it could send me mail, and i'll send them a > copy. I think that this means that BINSCII format would have a very serious disadvantage over EXECUTIONER format. One of the nice things about EXECUTIONER format is that you do not need to have the EXECUTIONER program just to unpack a file. However, if I receive a file in BINSCII format, I must first have the BINSCII program before I can unpack the file. Maybe once BINSCII becomes as popular as BLU, everyone will have a copy of BINSCII and this will be a moot point. But until then, it will not be nearly as convenient. Maybe the additional compression (while avoiding the ASCII-EBCDIC translation problems) will make it all worthwhile. I will keep my fingers crossed. Give some consideration to whether you could design the BINSCII files so that they could unpack themselves (as EXECUTIONER files can do). That sounds like a good challenge for a bright student :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------- J. Douglas Ashbrook (301) 496-5181 BITNET: JDA@NIHCU ARPA: jda%nihcu.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu National Institutes of Health, Computer Center, Bethesda, MD 20892