FromMac 0.3
Copyright (C) April 1994
ir.drs. Benjamin J. Walbeehm

April 26, 1994


Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is only a prototype!!! In particular, this means that it does not give
much feedback, and it does not do a lot of error checking (e.g. it does not
check if the specified files exist). Also, it means that it was not written
for speed. If I were to make a "real" version of this program, then it would
be much faster, and about ten times as small. Stated differently: FromMac 0.3
is not even close to the standards I use in definitive programs.

So what does it do? Just feed it files created by a program called UUTool
(which is used on the Apple Macintosh). As opposed to "standard" uuencoded
files, UUTool-encoded files also contain lowercase characters. The following
is a typical UUTool-encoded line:

Mj\LIXg\oOpn^HYFnecgo^TnUjvatY^=<\xJoazRnfoiaHne;frmOfnQIvcFy

Another, perhaps easier way to spot such files, is to look at the header of
the first section of the encoded file. As far as I know, UUTool is the only
encoder that uses "0700" as the UNIX file access code. As in:

begin 0700 This is a valid filename on the Mac

Don't bother editing out all non-encoded lines -- FromMac will usually
recognise these as not being encoded.


Usage
~~~~~
The command line syntax for FromMac is as follows:
FROMMAC [drive:][path]infilename[.ext] [[drive:][path]outfilename[.ext]]

If you do not provide an output name, then make sure that the extension of the
file you wish to convert is *not* .UUE, since the file that FromMac creates
will have that extension. Some examples:

"FROMMAC example.mac" will result in a file called EXAMPLE.UUE,
"FROMMAC example" will also result in a file called EXAMPLE.UUE,
"FROMMAC example.mac example.dos" will result in a file called EXAMPLE.DOS.

Wildcards are not allowed, and the input file is not deleted after the
conversion. Now use a standard uudecoder (preferably UU 3.0) to decode
the resulting file.

FromMac will not change non-UUTool-encoded lines, and the input file is
allowed to contain any number of sections. In particular, this means that
if an input file contains both standard uuencoded sections and UUTool-encoded
sections, the standard uuencoded sections will remain intact.

FromMac accepts DOS style ASCII files, UNIX style ASCII files, and Mac style
ASCII files, as well as any mixture of these.


Miscellaneous remarks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FromMac is freeware, but I strongly suggest you only distribute the complete
original package UU30.ZIP (or UU30.EXE).

FromMac was written in a mixture of Pascal and assembly language.

I do not think I shall ever release a "real" version of FromMac, since I
plan to support this Mac-uuencoding scheme in the next version of my own
uudecoder (so in UU version 3.1), and then I shall no longer have the need
for FromMac. Moreover, since UUTool-encoded files are fairly rare, and since
this prototype version of FromMac works fine, improving it is a treatment I
do not consider worth its salt.

One final remark: To accomodate Mac users, encoded files often also contain
a small file called .rsrc, and sometimes also another file called .finfo --
these files will be of no value in a DOS environment, so they can safely be
deleted after they have been uudecoded.

In case you want to contact me (I prefer e-mail):

Ben Jos Walbeehm (Please get my first name right, it is "Ben Jos".)
Lijsterbeslaan 20
5248 BB Rosmalen
The Netherlands
Phone : +31 4192 14345 (The best time (GMT) to get hold of me is at night!)
E-mail: [email protected]