🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Oct5.144800.22752@rock.concert.net>, toddwall@rock.concert.net
(R. Todd Wall -- Catholic Diocese of Raleigh -- Computer Services) writes...

>	On many of the FTPable sites there are files labeled .sit ..  I've
>fiqured out how to unsit them.  However, receintly there has been a 
>number of files labeled  .hqx ..  How do you unhqx them???

Files with the ".hqx" suffix are in binhexed format. Binhexing is not a
compression scheme: it is a way of taking a binary file (one that has icons and
other resources in it, for example) and 'translating' it so that it is a plain
text file. (This almost always makes the file >larger<.)  Most of the files you
use every day on your Macintosh are probably binary files, but these are put
together in a way that not all networks can handle. So many files--actually
most files, in my experience--that are available here on the networks have been
translated into binhex format, usually AFTER having been compressed.

BTW, here is a practical consequence of 'hexing a file that may illustrate what
is different about a 'hexed file. Take a little program like Apple's
Calculator. If you open Microsoft Word (or your favorite word processor) and
poke around in the Apple Menu Items folder of yor System folder, you will not
normally be able to SEE the Calculator. It is, after all, not a word processing
document. But if the Calculator were translated into binhex format, you would
be able to "read" it in Word or any other text processor. You couldn't DO
anything with it in that format, of course! It's like a loaf of bread that has
been turned >back < into plain flour, salt, water, &c.

So when you download a .hqx file, you need to DE-binhex first, and then you
usually will need to decompress it as well. There are several programs that
will debinhex files, but I recommend the freeware utility DeHQX (pronounced
"De-hex") which is available at the sumex-aim.stanford.edu FTP site. (I can't
recall where: In "util" or "comm", I think.) It's fast & easy. You can then use
Stuffit Expander to decompress the file (whether it's in .cpt or .sit format).

Good luck! 

William Porter 
Internet: wmporter@jetson.uh.edu
Classical Languages: University of Houston