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| Still Looking for the Perfect BinHex / Binary Encoding Tool |
Posted by: olePigeon on 2020-05-19 11:48:58
Unless my search has failed me, I've been unable to find a workable BinHex or Binary encoder for storing Macintosh files online. I wanted to avoid proprietary formats like Stuffit.
I have, unfortunately, run into an issue:
- BinHex 5.0 is not drag & drop capable, and is really slow compared to MacBinary.
- DropBin does not use RLE compression, so the resulting encoded files are much, much larger. It also fails to encode anything with an Ampersand in the name.
- Stuffit always stuffs first and won't met me just BinHex something. I found an AppleScript that lets you BinHex using DropStuff, but it's not compatible with version 4.
- MacBinary II+ and III both fail to encode if the resulting file name is longer than 32 characters; it doesn't know to truncate the name, resulting in me having to change the name of the original file (which I don't want to.) I can put the original file into its own named folder, then use MacBinary. That so far has been a workaround, but it's a bit annoying.
Anyone have suggestions? Must be System 7 compatible. I may have to permanently get out my G4 just for BinHex 5.0. I have this nagging feeling that one of the versions of Stuffit came with a Binhex utility.
My ideal binary encoding app would be BinHex 5.0 with RLE compression that has Drag & Drop support, can work with special characters in names, and can truncate if the resulting file is longer than 32 characters. Preferably truncating only the name of the file, not any extensions.
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Posted by: johnklos on 2020-05-19 13:23:51
Perhaps if you're doing lots of files all at once, it'd be easiest to use AppleScript to batch convert using BinHex 5.0.
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Posted by: olePigeon on 2020-05-19 16:27:03
BinHex 5.0 doesn't support scripting.
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Posted by: Crutch on 2020-05-19 18:01:10
I assume you don’t want to do this from a modern Mac? “binhex encode *” from Terminal ...
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Posted by: olePigeon on 2020-05-19 20:11:17
I was hoping for a System 7 utility. I might just have to grunt through it with BinHex 5.0.
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Posted by: Realitystorm on 2020-05-20 09:33:55
I typically bulk encode using Fetch when I ftp of my mac on to my PC. Not sure if you can use the same trick.
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Posted by: olePigeon on 2020-05-21 10:09:02
@RealitystormHmm, I didn't think to try that. I'll try uploading to my local FTP via Fetch.
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Posted by: olePigeon on 2020-05-21 16:32:51
Fetch decodes uploads. I'm not sure what's going on. It's uploading encoded, but by the time it's done it's been decoded again. :/ I tried disabling all post-processing and file handling, but it still does it.
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Posted by: Realitystorm on 2020-05-21 19:25:18
Odd, I'll check my settings. When I upload from my LC 475 to my windows machine there was an option I could select so all uploaded files were binhex encoded. I remember having to figure out how to turn that off so I could transfer raw disk images.
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Posted by: Realitystorm on 2020-05-21 19:34:31
"Fetch can get and put files in BinHex format. Conversion of BinHex format files can be turned on and off in the Preferences dialog box."
See https://fetchsoftworks.com/fetch/download/Fetch4Help.pdf, page 16 for BinHex, and page 34 for MacBinary
What version of fetch are you using?
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Posted by: olePigeon on 2020-05-21 22:31:59
2.1.2 I think. I'll try a newer version, but I'm running MacTCP.
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Posted by: olePigeon on 2020-05-21 22:48:42
Fetch 3.0.3 does the same thing. As it uploads it says "File_name.image.bin" It even initially lists the directory with that. But as soon as you refresh, it goes back to "File name.image"
Not sure what's going on. :/
I think at this point I may have to resort to just renaming the files.
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Posted by: Realitystorm on 2020-05-22 04:38:41
Is your server on a windows machine or another Mac? My server is on a Windows 10 machine running FileZilla. If your server is on a Mac, perhaps the server is auto decoding?
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Posted by: olePigeon on 2020-05-22 11:34:59
Server is on a IIci. It must be auto-decoding, but I don't know how to disable it.
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Posted by: Cory5412 on 2020-05-22 11:43:21
So, what's the use case you're looking for?
I see this come up from time to time and I'm kind of curious what it is people are interested in doing that involves, by my perception at least, and please correct me if I'm wrong, just leaving things binhexed.
My strategy with my own stuff and vtools, because it's a Mac server, is to leave things in their natural format on the HFS+ disks there. Same with when I burn a mac-format CD, basically. I never even got into, like, using stuffit or any other archival tool to enclose things or groups of things.
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Posted by: markyb86 on 2020-05-22 11:50:40
On the IIci, I'd look for one of the stuffit extensions. I can't remember (dropstuff?) but I had problems copying files SE > G3. The sit files were extracting as soon as they got to the other HD. Maybe it's doing that with the BinHex'd files?
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Posted by: olePigeon on 2020-05-23 20:21:15
@Cory5412 I have some free space on a friend's web server. I store a lot of my files there. As far as archiving, I just wanted to have a non-proprietary binary encoding tool so that I could safely upload my files. I just didn't want to have to rename everything. I also wanted to do it in bulk. I started to just rename files and use MacBinary again, but if you do more than one file, it gets slower and slower. Maybe it's a memory leak, I don't know. Happens on both II+ and III. If you try to encode 5 disk images, for example, it starts off fast, then the second one 25% slower, then 25% slower for the 3rd, etc. By the time it gets to the 5th file, it takes about 10 minutes to encode it where as if I had done them all separately, it'd 've been 30 seconds.
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