Re: MacOS floppy creation

["Chris Tillman" <tillman@azstarnet.com>]

>> One more slight complication. If it's saved as Unix or DOS text, (CRLFs or
>> LFs only), then Script Editor can't make heads or tails of it. So it has to
>> be saved in Mac style (CRs only) and kept from being munged by any of the
>> systems it crosses. Maybe the best thing would be to to binhex the script
>> text as well?
>
> hrm, yes binhex it. trying to keep it in the non-standard mac format is
> a losing battle and mac text is unreadable in *nix anyway.
>
> it would be nice if we could include a Free de-binhexor or unmacbin
> for MacOS to supply on the CD...  (iirc there is a tool called simply
> `MacBinaryII[I]' which comes with source under the public domain)
>

As you know, open source is not too big on the Mac. But I found this:

----

DeHQX v2.0.0 © Peter Lewis, Aug 1991.
This program is Freeware.

This source code may be used for any non-commercial purpose as long
as I get a mention in the about box and documentation of any derivative
program.


DeHQX was written in THINK Pascal v3.0.2.  To create a project file for this
code, open Main.p and follow the directions there.  The code is very
sparsely commented, but should be fairly understandable with the exception
of the code that actually performs the dehqxing.  All pascal units ending
with .unit are taken from my personal library of reusable modules, and
should be fairly easy to incorporate into any other program.

Send postcards, comments, bug reports, wishes, questions (or foreign coins,
since I collect them :-) to:

Peter Lewis,
10 Earlston Way,
Booragoon, WA, 6154,
AUSTRALIA

or, better yet, by electronic mail to:

Internet: Lewis_P@cc.curtin.edu.au
Bitnet: Lewis_P%cc.curtin.edu.au@cunyvm.bitnet
UUCP: uunet!munnari.oz!cc.curtin.edu.au!Lewis_P

If you use DeHQX or its source, please send me a note!

----

I located source for MacBinary III in Pascal, also by Peter Lewis, which
doesn't have a license included. There was also source for DropMacBinary III
in C, but it uses a shell internally which prohibits distribution of changed
versions. I think BinHex is a better target than MacBinary, because
MacBinary simply combines the two forks into one file (it's still binary)
while BinHex does that but also codes the file into 6-bits transmittable.

Of course, we still have a chicken-and-egg problem with this; we can't have
it on *nix systems unless it's binhexed and Mac users can't use it unless
it's not. mkhybrid would take care of that (btw, mkhybrid has been rolled
into cdrecord, upstream).

--

Chris Tillman
tillman@azstarnet.com