Subject: Re: File Extensions
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From: CUTblakeney@home.com (Jeff Blakeney)
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Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 17:35:33 GMT
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On Fri, 24 Dec 1999 10:14:26 -0600, phoenyx <quazar@dcnet2000.com>
wrote:

>Maybe we should go back to using a single standard archive
>wrapper. Perhaps Binscii, with a different and unusual
>extension. Of course that would mean lots of changes to
>the existing archive sites. But with the file being stored as
>text, it wouldn't matter.

Pretty much all you should see being made available are BXY (binary)
and BSQ (text) files.  Here is a fairly complete list of the common
extensions used for Apple II archives:

     BXY  NuFX archive (SHK or SDK) in a Binary II wrapper (BNY)
     BSQ  NuFX archive (SHK, SDK or BXY) encoded as 7 bit ASCII (BSC)

     BSC  A file encoded as 7 bit ASCII
     SHK  NuFX compressed archive containing one or more files
     SDK  NuFX compressed disk image
     BNY  One or more files in a Binary II wrapper
     BQY  File(s) compressed with BLU in a Binary II wrapper (BNY)
     QQ   A file compressed with BLU

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.  I can't remember
what extension DDDeluxe used.

You will also see a large number of SHK files around various places
but you'll end up having to fix the file type of the archive once you
download it if you want it to be listed correctly in Finder windows.
This may not be very easy depending on what software you have and
whether you have much knowledge of the actual file and all the file
types and auxiliary types that might describe the file.

If you download a BXY file and the Binary II wrapper isn't removed
(the files still has a BXY extension and the wrong file/aux type) then
you can use a simple Applesoft program by Gary Little called
BINARY.DOWN that will strip the wrapper for you.

At some point in the not too distant future I will be finishing up my
KFest '99 HackFest entry which is a program that will go through every
file in a directory and remove any Binary II wrappers and will also
look in each file to see if it is a NuFX archive and make sure the
file/aux types are set appropriately.

By the way, keep in mind that BSC and BSQ files will always be larger
than the binary files they contain so I'd be much happier downloading
the binary versions instead of the text ones and in fact that is
exactly what I do when I have a choice.

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