ProfitPress Mega CDROM2 …eeware (MSDOS)(1992)(Eng)/ProfitPress-MegaCDROM2.B6I/UTILITY/FILE/QUX01_91.ZIP/QUX-PP.DOC

Text File | 1991-01-15 | 6.3 KB | 127 lines

    These are  the latest  versions of  QUUNCD &  QUUDCD (UU- encoder and
decoder), QXXNCD & QXXDCD (XX- encoder  and decoder),  and PREPROC (which
strips header and footer lines and concatenates multipart UU-encoded [but
NOT XX-encoded] files).  These  are  fast  programs  written  in assembly
language.

    QUUDCD or  QXXDCD will  take one  or many encoded file[s], and decode
it[/them] into the original  binary file.   (PREPROC,  as mentioned, only
strips  header  and  footer/.signature  lines and concatenates UU-encoded
multipart files into a single large file.)  The initial input file may be
entered on the command line, or else the program will prompt the user for
it.  Any drive or path may be specified for the input  file, but  only to
80 characters (which should be more than enough).

    IMPORTANT: If  there is  more than  one portion  to the encoded file,
they must all be in the same directory, and they must follow a particular
naming convention,  explained below.   The output file will be written to
the current logged drive, and this feature cannot  be overridden.   There
are no command line switches.  Usage is:

    QUUDCD [drive][path][filename.ext]
    QXXDCD [drive][path][filename.ext]
    PREPROC [drive][path][filename.ext]

    For multipart  encoded files, these programs will search for the next
encoded file portion according to these rules: The first encoded file may
have any DOS-legal name and extension (or even no extension).  The second
file *MUST* have a '1' as the last character of  the filename  -- NOT the
extension.   Or, if  the last character of the filename of the first file
WAS a number (ANY number --  whether  '1'  or  something  else,  the last
character of  the second  filename must be one number higher.  Subsequent
files must have filenames ending in  numbers  of  ascending  order.   All
other filename  characters must  be the same, and all files must have the
same extension.

    Moreover, these  programs  increment  filename  numbers  of multipart
files, and  are capable of "rolling around" when the last digit is a '9',
and adjusting the next  higher  order  digit.    They  are  even  able to
"extend" a  filename, such  as from  '999.UUE' to  '1000.UUE'.  They will
not, however, extend a filename to more than 8 characters  (excluding the
extension).  Probably, the easiest thing to do is to name multipart files
simply by number, such as '1', '2', '3', etc.

Here are some examples of filenames that will work:

    File:      Ex. 1:         Ex. 2:      Ex. 3:    Ex.4:     Ex. 5:
    ----     ----------     ---------     -----     ----    ---------
    1st:     abcdef.uue     file1.xxe     14998      999    rstu9.xxx
    2nd:     abcde1.uue     file2.xxe     14999     1000    rst10.xxx
    3rd:     abcde2.uue     file3.xxe     15000     1001    rst11.xxx
    etc.        ...            ...         ...       ...       ...




Here are a couple that won't:

    File:     Ex. 1:          Ex. 2:
    ----     ----------     ----------
    1st:     abcdef.uu1     file-a.xxe
    2nd:     abcdef.uu2     file-b.xxe
    3rd:     abcdef.uu3     file-c.xxe
    etc.        ...            ...


    These programs are "intelligent"  programs,  able  to  decode encoded
files of  any length (in addition to multipart files, as outlined above).
They can even strip out spurious lines in  the main  body of  the encoded
portion.   Thus, it  is possible  to concatenate  multipart postings to a
single file (without removing headers and .signatures), and  the decoders
will successfully  decode it.  Also, the headers and .signatures need not
be edited out of individual multipart encoded files.   The  encoded files
may have CRLF line end pairs, or just the single UNIX (tm) LF character.

    (NOTE:  under  an  extremely  unlikely  set  of  circumstances, it is
possible for these programs  to accept  a spurious  line as  valid, but I
have yet to receive any reports of this ever having occurred.)

    QUUNCD and  QXXNCD will create one or many UU- or XX- encoded file[s]
(as many as it takes) from an original binary file.   The  input file may
be entered on the command line, or else the programs will prompt the user
for it.  Any drive or path may be specified for the input file,  but only
to 80  characters (which  should be  more than  enough).  IMPORTANT: Make
sure you have enough free disk space!  UU- and XX- encoded  files take up
more space  than the  original files  being encoded.   The output file[s]
will be written to the current logged drive,  and this  feature cannot be
overridden.  There are no command line switches.  Usage is:

    QUUNCD [drive][path][filename.ext]
    QXXNCD [drive][path][filename.ext]

    If there  is only a single encoded output file, it will have the same
filename as the input file, with the extension  changed (or  appended, if
there wasn't any) to .UUE or .XXE (as appropriate).  If there are several
encoded output files, the first of these will have the  last character if
its filename  changed to a '1' (unless it was a number digit in the first
place), and the last characters of the filenames of subsequent files will
be numbers  in ascending  order.  The lengths of individual encoded files
of a file encoded into multiple parts will be approximately equal, except
that  the  first  file  will  be  about 1.2K to 1.8K shorter, in order to
accommodate a short explanation.

    These programs have been designed to use large buffers, so  as not to
cause  "thrashing",  i.e.,  repeated  disk  reads  and writes.  They also
allocate memory dynamically according to their  needs.   The maximums are
slightly  more  than  62K  in  the  case of the decoders and PREPROC, and
slightly more than 110K in the case of the encoders.




    These programs read responses to prompts from the  standard input and
display messages  concerning time  spent in encoding or decoding (but NOT
in reading or writing to the disk) to  the standard  output.  Redirection
is supported.  Error messages are displayed to the standard error device,
and standard DOS error codes are returned upon abnormal exit.

    Please note that there are Copyrights  on these  programs by Theodore
A. Kaldis.  The programs may be distributed freely, without charge.

[UNIX is a trademark of AT&T]