hidden character ?

[Dennis Malen]

Thanks Bob!

My default is binary which has worked well except for the occasional "?" 
which we have no problem fixing.

I too love IBM and will stick with them.

Dennis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Stockler" <bob at trebor.iglou.com>
To: <Filepro-list at lists.celestial.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 8:15 PM
Subject: Re: hidden character ?


> Dennis Malen wrote (on Wed, Jan 11, 2006 at 06:28:20PM -0500):
>
> | I have been using a binary FTP for about 1 and 1/2 years. Before that
> | ASCII. My experience has been that I had more errors in ascii as filepro
> | had trouble reading the records being imported, than I did in binary. 
> The
> | only problem I do have periodically is the "?". I am able to overcome 
> that
> | problem with filepro programming by using the len command and re-writing 
> to
> | the field the same info.
> |
> | In any event, in my environment (AIX) binary seems to be more reliable.
>
> Dennis, FTP is a univeral File Transfer Protocol that I'm SURE
> IBM implemented properly (the only REALLY dumb thing I've ever
> known them to do was to make the deal they did with Bill Gates
> when they were preparing to introduce the IBM PC).
>
> The only way FTP can fail to handle the CR-NL -vs- NL-only line
> endings in text files is if the user neglects to assure that it's
> in ASCII or Binary Mode before the file transfer is begun.
>
> In Binary Mode FTP transfers files with absolutely no translation.
>
> In ASCII Mode (which should be used ONLY for text files) when FTP
> transfers files it translates CR-NL line ending files to NL-only
> line ending files and vice-versa according to which way the transfer
> is being made.
>
> Every FTP program I've ever met allows for setting it up to come
> up in either ASCII or Binary Mode by default, and then the user
> is responsible to assure it's in the proper mode for the current
> task.
>
> For most of my use of FTP I use NcFTP on my Windows XP Pro on
> my laptop, and have it set to default to Binary Mode, because
> most of my file transfers will be from UNIX systems, and then
> I transfer them to my SCO UNIX system (so no translating of
> line endings is required).  (I do it this way for the convenience
> of being able to sit in my family room at my laptop on the coffee
> table, with the fireplace across the room, the TV to its left,
> and a beautiful view out of the window wall left of the TV.)
>
> However, when I transfer filePro stuff between my laptop and my
> UNIX system, I have to be careful whether NcFTP is in ASCII or
> Binary Mode.  Though they'll work either ways, processing tables
> (saved with ABE=ASCII) are better transferred in Binary Mode
> (I'm not sure about tables saved with ABE=""; I haven't tried it,
> but they might be corrupted by translation of possible hex 0a's
> in the encrypted tables).
>
> filePro User Menus (though they also work either way) are also
> better transferred in Binary Mode (if not, they can't be used
> with my MENU EDIT II program, because an ASCII Mode transfer
> will add CRs to the Menu's three ssgments, making them longer
> than the 4719 bytes my MENU EDIT II program expects).
>
> README.txt, etc., files are better transfered in ASCII Mode.
>
> It's simple.  Get used to it, and don't blame it on IBM - I'm
> an IBM shareholder, and I resent that (accounting for this
> long diatribe).
>
> Bob (who has only the one bitch, expressed above, with IBM)
>
> PS - I'm even happy with the deal IBM made with Lenovo - my
>     ThinkPad support is as good or better than it was, and
>     I think it may be good for the shares I hold in IBM.
>
> -- 
> Bob Stockler  +-+  bob at trebor.iglou.com  +-+ 
> http://members.iglou.com/trebor
> Author: MENU EDIT II - The BEST Creator/Editor/Manager for filePro User 
> Menus.
> Fully functional (time-limited) demos available by email request (specify 
> OS).
> _______________________________________________
> Filepro-list mailing list
> Filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> http://mailman.celestial.com/mailman/listinfo/filepro-list
>
>
>