MacTerminal 1.1 MacBinary file transfers

[kingchops]

Hi All,

I spent some time yesterday connecting my Mac 512k to my Windows pc via serial cable. I created the appropriate cable and all works fine. I'm using MacTerminal 1.1 on the Mac and I can transfer files between each computer using XModem. But I'm having the dreaded problem that each file I transfer to the Mac is only recognized as a document not executable etc. Is there a way to get MacTerminal 1.1 to receive files as MacBinary?

I know other terminal software such as ZTerm has a Mac binary option, but I can't see anything like that for MacTerminal 1.1.

 

[uniserver]

can you send them as SIT files? then just drag and stop the file on unstuff?

 

[kingchops]

can you send them as SIT files? then just drag and stop the file on unstuff?

I've tried transferring all sorts of files .sit, .bin, .sea etc. None are recognized, all end up being identified as "document" once transferred. I'm using system 4.1 on the 512k so you can't drag and drop. Unfortunately I don't have Stuffit on disk for the 512k. All I have in terms of storage on the 512k is the internal 400k drive and an external 400k drive. My plan was to boot the machine from the internal floppy with MacTerminal 1.1 on the disk, then I could transfer up to 400k to the external drive. It would work great if I could just transfer the files without the dreaded resource fork becoming screwed.

One other thing I have tried is to transfer the files from Basilisk II on the pc. I have Basilisk II running system 7 on the pc and I can transfer files from that but the problem is the same once they hit the 512k. What I could also do is set up an Appletalk network between Basilisk II and the 512k, but I still need to get the Appleshare disk over to the 512k. It's a bit of a catch 22.

 

[unity]

ResEdit? My knowledge here is more System 7 and up. But there has to be an app like ResEdit that will run on the Mac 512 so you can just correct the file types. Not ideal and there may be a better solution. But its what came to mind for me.

 

[CC_333]

ResEdit will probably work. Problem is, how does he get it to the 512k?

ResEdit was around pre-System 7, so it should work (don't know if it would run with 512k of RAM, though).

c

 

[techknight]

newer versions of stuffit doesnt care about the resource fork. This i know from experience. Older versions do though, and they are a pain to work with.

 

[kingchops]

Thanks to all for the input. I really don't think my initial idea for terminal transfers is going to work. Someone put me onto Finder Info 1.1.1, which does resolve the file resource fork issue, but unfortunately it would only work with archives. If I had a hard drive it would be a great solution. But due to the limited space with only two 400k drives, extracting archives is not going to be ideal. I think the serial solution will still work though, I'm going to look at creating a 400k Appleshare disk. I've already created the disk image on MiniVMac and it seems to work. Once I get this onto a physical disk I should be able to access a file server running on Basilisk, through the serial cable. This should then allow me to copy application files directly to the blank 400k external disk. That's the plan anyway.

 

[uniserver]

throw some plus rom's in there and use 800k drive/floppies and 6.0.8 ?

 

[uniserver]

buy a couple floppy EMU's from BMOW

 

[uniserver]

maybe soon when someone decides to implement the HD20 support in the floppy emu, we will be golden!!!!!!!!???!?!?!?!?

 

[kingchops]

uniserver,

Floppy emu looks great, not sure if they are available currently, last I looked on BMOW site, it said a new batch was coming. Also, I could the rom replacement as I have some Mac Plus roms. But ideally I'd like to keep this machine as early a configuration as possible.

 

[Mac128]

You need to run MacTerminal from inside a Mac emulator, along with some other adjustments. Start with http://mac128.com and you will find a couple of tutorials for using MacTerminal within OS X, which should apply to a PC environment as well ...

 

[napabar]

You need to encode the files as Binhex first, then transfer them using MacTerminal, then decode them on the Mac 512K.

Use Binhex 4.0 on the Mac 512K for de-coding.

I wrote a Mac OS X app to encode file for Binhex. It's called OldHex, and you can buy it here.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/oldhex/id415628440?mt=12

 

[kingchops]

You need to run MacTerminal from inside a Mac emulator, along with some other adjustments. Start with http://mac128.com and you will find a couple of tutorials for using MacTerminal within OS X, which should apply to a PC environment as well ...

I've tried running MacTerminal 1.1 on the PC side using Basilisk II, I thought it may address the file type issue but it didn't. I've seen that tutorial, It doesn't address the problem of the file type being "document" when the files are transferred using MacTerminal 1.1.

 

[Blinkenlightz]

I don't think MacTerminal will do MacBinary or BinHex conversion on-the-fly - it will require a decoder on the Mac. MacBinary and BinHex were both methods devised for the transfer of Mac files (which incorporate a resource fork) via other platforms' file transfer methods such as the serial-line protocols (XMODEM, YMODEM, ZMODEM, Kermit, etc), or FTP. None of those protocols are resource-fork-aware, so MacBinary and BinHex encode the contents of the data fork and resource fork into a single data file that other platforms can store and transfer.

The result is that even if the source machine is a Mac, if you're using a non-Mac protocol (in this case, anything other than AFP) to transfer the file, it arrives on the Mac as a generic data-only file. An application on the Mac would be necessary to decode the file into its source again, with its resource fork (the resource fork contains the file type info). Newer applications, web browsers, etc, will often perform conversion automatically after a file transfer. But I don't believe any application in existence at the time of the 512 would do that.

I'm not sure what to suggest here to get BinHex or similar onto a disk accessible on the 512, unless you have another Mac with a 1.44MB drive accessible to you...

 

[kingchops]

Just an update on this, I've had some success. I revived an old Powerbook 520c that I have, which allowed me to create a 400k disk with the required software for the 512k.

I've come up with the following 400k boot disk:

System 2.0 (50k)

Finder 4.1 (47K)

MacTerminal 1.1 (98k)

BixHex 5 (8k)

- Result is around 188k free on the boot disk.

By booting the 512k with this disk, I can transfer files in BixHex format across the serial link using XModem in MacTerminal. If the files are 188k or less you can transfer them directly to the boot disk, then extract them out with resource fork in tact using BinHex to a blank 400k disk in the external drive. If the files are greater than 188k, MacTerminal allows you to eject the boot disk when receiving a file, so you can write the receive file to a blank disk. This gives you the ability to transfer a full 400k of data. Then with a bit of disk swapping you quit MacTerminal and run BinHex which also allows you to eject the program disk and extract from the data disk to a blank disk in the external drive.

So all in all, this is a complete solution for transferring files downloaded off the net directly from any Windows of Mac computer, to a Mac 512k, without using a bridge machine.

I also thought I would post my notes for wiring the serial cable, see below:

Mac db-9 Male => PC RS232 DB-9 Female - Description

7 => 6 - DSR

4 => 4 - DTR

9 => 3 - TXD

1 => 5 - GND

5 => 2 - RXD

To do some testing, I created a 512k version of MiniVMac using the actual rom from my 512k, that helped to test what versions of software would actually work. I found that many terminal programs are just too big or would not run under system 2.0. Zterm looked great but will not run in anything less that system 6.0. Screen shot of disk from vMac:

[attachment=0]MacTermBinhex.gif[/attachment]

 

[kingchops]

Further to this I've found an even better utility than BixHex 5 to transfer files across the serial link: PackIt 1.0. Packit is only 9k and allows you to archive multiple files at the source. Then at the destination it allows you to open the packit archive by simply removing the filter when opening files. Files are then restored to the destination will resource fork in tact. It doesn't provide compression, but otherwise it's a great utility.

I've done a write up of this process on my website:

http://tkc8800.com/page/File-transfer-from-pc-to-Macintosh-128k512k-via-serial-cable

 

[Mk.558]

haha BixHex

I'm pleased you found a solution that ought to work for your setup. Permit me then, to describe a couple of differences in procedure:

1) I like BinHex 4.0. The reason is that it is more compatible. BinHex files should survive any platform implementation or file transfer method. As long as you use TEXT when you send the file in HyperTerminal/minicom/ZTerm/whatever you're fine. MacBinary does have a slight kerfuffle with MIME types when sending across the internet but most email providers should be already smart about that. Also BinHex has many cross-platform decoders and encoders -- even OS X 10.5+ has it in the command line.

2) CompactPro can create self-extracting archives. I compressed KidPix, which is 200KiB, into a .sea of 60KiB. Adding BinHex 4.0 encoding raised it to 78KiB. I have never used or heard of PackIt before but I suppose it works fine.

3) Your DE9 RS422 to DE9 RS232 setup is interesting, using DSR and DTR over CTS and RTS. Your page omits details of bitrate and handshaking but I did notice that not using hardware handshake (CTS & RTS) was a significant speed detractor.

4) I have yet to even mention RS232 over RJ45. This could make a USB to RS232 adapter obsolete but I think I should conduct more research.

 

[kingchops]

Thanks for the feedback, see my responses below:

1) Yeah, version 4 of BinHex would be fine, it's about the same size and I don't imagine any problems with it. My process for transferring files across to the physical 512k is to first test and prepare the files in Mini vMac, that way I can archive and extract the files using the exact same program, so I haven't had any issue with BinHex 5. But with Packit you don't even need it, because Packit will recognize any file type. Also with MacTerminal 1.1, I found that you cannot receive files at text. Seems pretty ridiculous, but it will only receive files when set to XModem transfers.

2) I did try CompactPro but couldn't find a version that would run on System 2.0. And also it needs to be small. Keep in my that my goal is to work with a system that has two 400k floppy drives as the only storage, so size is important. Check out Packit, there are two versions: v1.0 (9k), and v3 (30k). V3 does compression but it's very slow, so I prefer to use v1.

3) Thanks for the suggestion, while the serial link works fine, it is slow. I run it at 9600 baud and even at that speed it should be faster, so I'll experiment with using CTS and RTS.

4) I wanted to keep things simple with this solution, not only for myself but others wanting to do the same thing. So USB to serial is very easy. Would be interested to hear more about ethernet to serial if that's what you mean.