On Mar 7, 8:51 pm, Gregg Eshelman <[email protected]> wrote: > Mac files have two parts, a data fork and a resource fork. The only thing > that knows what to do with the resource fork is a Mac. > > When you download Mac files onto a PC, you lose the resource fork and the > file is 'broken' for use on a Mac.
I suspected this could have something to do with the resource/data fork issue. > There is a way around this though. If the file is archived into Stuffit .sit > files, the resource fork doesn't matter. The .sea files are self-extracting > archives with a 'built in' version of Stuffit Expander. The problem is that > program code which enables the .sea to self-extract is in the resource fork. > > Mac files can also be encoded into text files. BinHex .hqx or MacBinary .bin. > BinHex uses only 7-bit ASCII characters*, which makes the encoded file quite > a bit larger. (Encoding 8-bit data using only 7-bit patterns.) MacBinary uses > the full 8-bit ASCII character set. I'm familiar with the concept of converting executable code to text for transmission (e.g. uuencode). I just didn't think I would have to deal with this when downloading files. So I guess the servers that hold these Mac resource fork bearing files can handle this. This all makes sense, but I have a few questions... I have a .sea file (I don't remember for what) on my PC. With Stuffit Expander 5.5 installed, if I double-click this file SE will extract the contents. Is this because SE on the PC is looking past, and ignoring, the possibly corrupted/missing resource fork (the self-extracting code) in the .sea file? I understand the the extracted contents may be invalid if they were supposed to contain a resource fork. Other .sea files that I try to open on the PC say that the files are not in the expected format. I thought I should download these files directly from my Quadra (7.5.5 with Internet Explorer 4). There was a snag there. Apparently IE can't render the lowendmac page that had the download links. Guess it's time to see what iCab is all about. Installed it. It renders the page good enough to find the download links. Now, if I download those same files with iCab, it holds on to them. There icons are iCab icons on my Desktop. If I double-click them, iCab launches and downloads the file again. They clearly have the .sea extension. What's up with that? I've looked around, but I can't see where to remove this behavior. If I download those .sea files on Tiger, they're just blank documents. If these .sea files are supposed to be exectuble code (for patching Drive Setup), what do they execute on? Also, the .sit file (the patch file for Apple HD SC) is unusable as well, even on the Macs. At least I get something different though. When I drag the .sit file to StuffIt Expander 5.5. on the (System 7.5.5) Mac, SE comes back and says something about the fact that it could've extracted the files if I had DropStuff or StuffIt Deluxe installed. > If you download a .sea file to a PC it must be .sea.bin or .sea.hqx. It could > be .sea.sit but there's really no point. ;) > > DON'T unstuff or decode the files on your Windows box! Use your Mac transfer > program to format disks to Mac format then have the utility copy the files to > the disk and simultaneously decode them from .bin or .hqx Thanks for this tip. I probably would've done just that and ended up with alot of unusable files. I've already changed my ways. I went back and found several files that I had already decompressed. Good thing I had kept their original .bin and .hqx files. I've glad I'm getting a crash course in all of this encoding and compression stuff and how it related to Macs. I was wanting to know this stuff anyway. Right now, though, I just want to get a Drive Setup and Apple HD SC patched. Is it possible for someone to send me usable .bin or .hqx encoded versions of the patched Drive Setup 1.5 and 1.7.3 and Apple HD SC 7.3.5 (referenced in Tyler Sable's article http://www.lowendmac.com/sable/07/mac-drive-setup-patch.html). Thanks. Lonnie. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Vintage Macs group. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vintage-macs?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
