'Way back on Oct 29th, I wrote:

> In transferring ASCII files from the 3000 to a PC, we notice two
> differences between using FTP and downloading with Reflection: speed (!),
> and the resulting byte count.
>
> If we say       HP  = byte_reclen * eof
> then            FTP = HP + ( 2*eof )
> and             WRQ = HP + eof + 1
>
> I'm guessing that the WRQ transfer appends a <return> to each record, and
> the DOS EOF character at the end. Further, I'm guessing that FTP appends
> both a <return> and a <line_feed> to each record.

It turns out I was quite a bit off base on this one, and I would like to
set the record straight.

The file that we were testing with, in whole or in part, was an ASCII file
with fixed-length records. Here's the key: the last two characters of each
record contained a double-quote followed by a space.

(I did not have a DOS hex editor at the time, so I could not see exactly
what was in the resulting files. I have since downloaded one from

        <http://www.shareware.com/>

a site operated by c|net hosting both Mac and PC shareware.)

And now, the moment you've been waiting for. Here's the REAL difference in
transferring an ASCII file with ftp or with Reflection:

        ftp        transfers the entire record, and appends a cr/lf to each.

        Reflection transfers the record WITHOUT TRAILING BLANKS,
                   and appends a cr/lf to each. At EOF, it appends hex 1A.

I had tried to import the ftp'd file into Paradox, with success or failure
which I could attribute only to sun spots. I still do not know why
sometimes it works and sometimes it fails, but at least I know (?) it is
the trailing blank after the final field in the ASCII delimited file that
provokes this random behaviour.

Sorry for the confusion.

--Glenn Cole
  Software al dente, Inc.
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