Newsgroups: comp.archives
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!ox.com!emv
From: allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR)
Subject: [alt.sources.d] Re: A readable, robust encoding for source postings
Message-ID: <1991Jan17.072702.20821@ox.com>
Followup-To: alt.sources.d
Sender: emv@ox.com (Edward Vielmetti)
Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR)
Organization: North Coast Computer Resources (ncoast)
References: <4410@network.ucsd.edu> <MEISSNER.90Dec28123513@curley.osf.org> <1990Dec29.114801.5895@Daisy.EE.UND.AC.ZA> <1990Dec30.022449.25462@NCoast.ORG>
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 1991 07:27:02 GMT
Approved: emv@ox.com (Edward Vielmetti)
X-Original-Newsgroups: alt.sources.d

Archive-name: compression/encoding/abe/1990-12-30
Archive: chyde.uwasa.fi:/pc/source/abe.zoo [128.214.12.3]
Original-posting-by: allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR)
Original-subject: Re: A readable, robust encoding for source postings
Reposted-by: emv@ox.com (Edward Vielmetti)

As quoted from <1990Dec29.114801.5895@Daisy.EE.UND.AC.ZA> by barrett@Daisy.EE.UND.AC.ZA (Alan P. Barrett):
+---------------
| I think that the correct way to fix this is to use an encoding that is
| both readable and robust.  A version of shar that does stuff like
| encoding tabs as \t and wrapping lines in a reversible way would do it.
| In fact, there was a lot of discussion on this topic here several months
| ago.  Sorry, I don't remember details, but I thought that somebody was
| going to do some real work on coming up with a suitable standard?
+---------------

Brad Templeton's ABE is in the comp.sources.misc archives.  It is a robust,
readable encoding that includes line-by-line checksums and mapping of
characters that don't survive EBCDIC translations (and others).  I would
personally consider starting from there, as Brad decided not to make it share-
ware/commercial in part as a possible solution to this issue.

++Brandon
-- 
Me: Brandon S. Allbery			    VHF/UHF: KB8JRR on 220, 2m, 440
Internet: allbery@NCoast.ORG		    Packet: KB8JRR @ WA8BXN
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