the kermit downloading blues

[Steve Strassmann <straz@cambridge.apple.com>]

>Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 13:48:46 EDT
>From: wilcox@cmns.think.com (Greg Wilcox)
>To: info-mcl@cambridge.apple.com
>Subject: the kermit downloading blues
>
>I would like to download a file from cambridge.apple.com which is in .sit
>fort. I can get it from there to my own remote login site using ftp,
>but I cannot get it to my local machine intact. The problem is that the
>remote site has only kermit, not xmodem (at least invoking sb doesn't
>work). Of course by using kermit, I receive an integer number of packets,
>the last of which is partially empty. This last packet then causes a CRC
>error when I run BinHex.
>
>Is there an easy way around this problem, such as truncating the file
>to the correct length? Or a setting in Kermit that would work?
>Then again, I'm not very good at UN*X, and I could be overlooking something
>there. Suggestions?
>

I don't see any files on our contrib directory in .sit form, but maybe
you mean another directory. All our .sit files have been converted to
binhex format (hence the "hqx" suffix), which means plain 7bit ascii
with no lines longer than 80 chars.

When you transfer the file from our site to yours, make sure you issue
the "binary" command before saying "get" to ftp. Some unix ftp programs 
strip the 8th bit of each character if you don't do this. 

Kermit is also 7bit by default, so you have to do something like
"set file type binary" before sending a file using Kermit.

You might also want to contact your system administrator and inquire about
getting xmodem (or better yet, zmodem) running on your system.