xfer problems sco-sun

[Kenneth Brody]

Bill Campbell wrote:
[...]
> >> Complicated by the fact that the FP key and data records are fixed length
> >> with no \n linefeed delimiter so one has to read fixed length.
> >
> >I've never heard of a binary file that used text-based record delimiters.
> 
> FP files have few binary parts, the file header record, and the
> 20 byte header on each key file record, the data itself is
> straight ascii (or at least it was the last time I dug into FP
> files in depth).
> 
> Ending the files with a line feed would make it easier to manipulate them
> with standard tools.

And when the binary part includes NULs and LFs, what then?

<sidebar mode="wayback machine">

Many moons ago, someone who was transfering key files between systems
(using his own tools) complained that "all of a sudden" the files were
"no good" at the other end.  (And, probably, was wanting to know what
"we" did to screw it up.)

Turns out that he was using a text-mode transfer method, and it stopped
working 2560 days after 1-Jan-1983.  (Translation:  it started when the
date stored in the header reached 0x0a00.)

</sidebar>
-- 

+---------+----------------------------------+-----------------------------+
| Kenneth |     kenbrody at spamcop.net      | "The opinions expressed     |
|    J.   |    http://www.hvcomputer.com     |  herein are not necessarily |
|  Brody  |      http://www.fptech.com       |  those of fP Technologies." |
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