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- University of Vaasa, Finland, MIPS R2030 workstation garbo.uwasa.fi
- has a large collection of PD and shareware PC programs available by
- anonymous ftp and mail server. The file /pc/ts/0news-ts contains
- news about the TS-programs in the /pc/ts directory (in reverse
- order). This text, which you now have, is an extract from the
- 0news-ts file.
- ...................................................................
- Prof. Timo Salmi
- Moderating at garbo.uwasa.fi anonymous ftp archives 128.214.87.1
- School of Business Studies, University of Vaasa, SF-65101, Finland
- Internet: ts@chyde.uwasa.fi Funet: gado::salmi Bitnet: salmi@finfun
- ...................................................................
-
- Fri 18-Oct-91: I have updated my filters for converting Unix <-->
- MsDos text files. As you know, Unix text files use ascii 10 as eolns
- (end of lines), while MsDos text files use the ascii 13 10 pair.
- PC2UNIX.EXE and UNIX2PC.EXE filters in the updated
- garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/ts/tsfilt18.arc
- can be used to convert the eolns. I have added a /t test switch for
- batch programming to both the filters. When the switch is on, the
- filters return errorlevel==0 if the file redirected to the filter is
- a text file. Else it returns errorlevel==1.
- I have added a U2PC.BAT batch which utilizes this feature. The
- purpose of the U2PC.BAT batch is to convert the original Unix
- textfile into an MsDos textfile, and preserve the date/time stamp of
- the file in converting it. To use it you'll need my TOUCH.EXE
- program from garbo.uwaswa.fi:/pc/ts/tsutlb19.arc (note that earlier
- versions won't do). You also must have at least MsDos version 3.30.
- In fact I wrote this batch for my own needs, but decided to make
- it publicly available, too. The background is this. I have been
- transferring also text files from my hosts (chyde and garbo) via a
- modem connection to my home PC. To make the transfer more efficient
- I have used .arc compression first. This choice is because .arc can
- correctly handle the the Unix <-> PC eoln conversion, while the
- current .zip and .zoo do not have this feature. However, because of
- its better efficiency I want to use .zip packing to transfer the
- textfiles. But I also want to preserve the original date/time stamps
- of the files when I do the eoln conversion on my PC after unpacking
- the relevant .zip file, so I wrote this batch for this purpose.
- Furthermore, there is a new UNZIPTXT.BAT batch which unzips a zip
- file and converts the found Unix text files into MsDos text files
- while preserving the date/time stamps intact.
- Incidentally, if you find U2PC.BAT and UNZIPTXT.BAT instructive,
- there is plenty more in /pc/ts/tsbat27.arc.
-
- Tue 21-May-91: I have programmed three sets of various MsDos
- filters, and now updated the first set to be /pc/ts/tsfile17.arc. In
- general, the true (Unix-type) filters are written to rely on pipes
- and/or redirection. A common practical problem with these filters is
- that if you type the filter name all by itself, you appear to be
- stuck. In actual fact the filter is just expecting input from the
- console. The remedy to this problem is to program the filter in a
- way that it senses whether it is getting piped (or redirected)
- input. If it is not, then instead of filtering, the call to the
- filter should give the instructions. As an example consider the
- filter UNIX2PC which converts Unix eolns (end of lines) to PC eolns
- (useful if you transfer Unix text files to your PC). The common
- syntax using pipe and redirection is
- TYPE UNIX.TXT | UNIX2PC > PC.TXT
- What I have done is to reprogram UNIX2PC in such a way that if you
- write alone
- UNIX2PC
- this call will give you the instructions, instead of waiting for
- input from the console to the filter. Technically speaking this is
- achieved by a program code which detects where the input comes from,
- and acts accordingly. The idea for using this redirection detection
- code comes from an article in the PC Magazine, April 16, 1991, p.
- 374. (This does not work for MsDos versions earlier than 2.00).
- I have included this feature in the following of the filters in
- the updated tsfilt17.arc package:
- PC2UNIX.EXE PC text eolns to Unix eolns
- UNIX2PC.EXE Unix text eolns to PC eolns
- ASC2IBM.EXE 7 ascii to Scandinavian 8bit ibm
- IBM2ASC.EXE 8bit ibm to Scandinavian 7 ascii
- The input and output of also ASC2IBM.EXE and IBM2ASC.EXE has not
- been buffered for faster disk access (in other words these filters
- kind of have a cache of their own).
- The following edited extract from my Frequently Asked Questions
- is also of interest here:
- 23. *****
- Q: Where can I find compress for MsDos to handle .Z files?
- A: Unix has compress, uncompress and zcat programs to pack or
- unpack files which are given the .Z extension. These files can also
- be handled under MsDos using for example /pc/unix/comp430d.zip,
- which is available from anonymous FTP sites like garbo.uwasa.fi,
- SIMTEL20, etc.
- There is one useful trick if you uncompress on MsDos such text
- files that have been made on Unix with compress. Unix and MsDos have
- different eolns (end of lines). You can extract a Unix compressed
- text file as follows
- comp430d -d -c YourZFile | unix2pc > YourOutputFile
- where unix2pc.exe is taken from /pc/ts/tsfilt17.arc (or whatever is
- the current version number).
-
-
- 28-Aug-89: TSFILT16.ARC has the following enhancements:
-
- - ASC2IBM.EXE and IBM2ASC.EXE have been added. These are filters for
- Scandinavian conversions of 8-bit <--> 7-bit characters. They
- perform a similar function as TOIBM.EXE and TOASC.EXE. The
- difference is that the latter are programs taking the files as
- parameters, while the new programs are filters, which can be used
- in pipes. The background of these two new filter is the following.
- I discovered that I needed the conversion utilities for Unix as
- well, and wrote these two filters in a Unix system using Pascal
- making the programs as portable as possible. I then imported the
- source code to my PC and recompiled them with Turbo Pascal.
- Because of their origin ASC2IBM.EXE and IBM2ASC.EXE have not been
- optimized for Turbo Pascal speed.
-
- - QUOTE.EXE switches have been redesigned. It now works in the same
- way as my Unix quote filter. Those of you who might be interested
- in my Unix programs, and have and ftp capability, can obtain them
- by anonymous ftp from the University of Vaasa, Finland, Sun 4,
- site 128.214.12.3, directory /unix/ts.
-
-
- TSFILT15.ARC has the following enhancements and fixes:
-
- - PC2UNIX.EXE, UNIX2PC.EXE, and QUOTE.EXE have been introduced to
- the package.
-
- - All the programs have been recompiled with a lower heap limit.
-
- - LOGFILT.EXE no longer uses direct video output, which means
- enhanced compatibility.
-
- - FLSUBS.EXE, TOASC.EXE, TOASCI.EXE, and TOIBM.EXE have been made
- more tolerant to the order of parameters and switches.
-