Now THAT's a funny topic name...

Once you have compressed a file into a /sit (I have an ancient dropstuff- it only does .sits) you can turn them into .zip, .hqx, .bin, .sitx, .... anything else you can think of... by changing the file name, right? The only problem is, then it says I can't open them because I don't have the right permissions or some other random thing like that. I have to turn it back into .sits to be opened. The .zips can be posted, but I have never got feedback saying I messed up stuffing it... Is that only my problem, and everyone else can open my files?

I have a OS 9 dropstuff, because my computer was originally from like 1998 (or 1997...) and there is a 30 day trial that I am halfway through. Is ther any other way to compress files? It is wierd, because the stuffit that came with the OS X installed on my computer only has the expander, not dropstuff. The expander is registered, but I need to pay $30 to keep using dropstuff... what can I do? (other than registering dropstuff for $30)

I have included some compressed files, originally .sits, but given file extensions of a few different kinds. tell me if you can open them and view the contents correctly.

Attached File(s)

• Dropstuff_test2.hqx (2.12K)
  Number of downloads: 12
• Dropstuff_test4.zip (2.12K)
  Number of downloads: 12

FedKiller said:

Once you have compressed a file into a /sit...you can turn them into .zip, .hqx, .bin, .sitx, .... anything else you can think of... by changing the file name, right?

Er, no. StuffIt, Zip, and such are all different compression formats; changing the name will just confuse the computer, since it will think the file is something different than it actually is. It certainly won't turn a StuffIt archive into a Zip one, or vice versa. Changing the name of a file never changes the contents.

Why don't you want StuffIt files, anyway?

Quote

It is wierd, because the stuffit that came with the OS X installed on my computer only has the expander, not dropstuff. The expander is registered, but I need to pay $30 to keep using dropstuff... what can I do?

There's nothing weird about that - StuffIt Expander is free and bundled with Mac OS X, but DropStuff costs money.

Yeah, listen to David.

Stuff something using a StuffIt product, it will be a .sit, and will always be a .sit.

Stuff something with a zipping tool (like that built into OS X I guess) and it will be a .zip.

Run any file (which traditionally was done with .sit files on the Mac) through a MacBinary or BinHex encoder and it will become a .bin or .hqx file, respectively. Both of these are just different encoding formats that can encode one or more files into a binary file so that they can be moved over the Internet easily.

Once a file is compressed or encoded in a specific format, it stays in that format. The file extension that's tacked onto the file name is how the OS keeps track of what file type it is. If you change it, the OS will get confused because you're telling it one thing, but the file itself is something else (so if try to unstuff a .sit file that you renamed from a .zip, it'll think it's a .sit file and get confused because the .zip and .sit files are made differently).

Anyway, I tried your .zip file just to be sure (I'm on a Windows machine right now) and it definitely didn't work.

If you want .sit files so badly you should just go out and get the product. There's really no reason to, however; .zip files should work just as well for your purposes, so you might as well just zip stuff instead. Just make sure you keep the name as .zip.

Sorry for the long winded explanation; I hope it helps.

Firebird, on Jul 10 2005, 10:40 AM, said:

Stuff something with a zipping tool (like that built into OS X I guess) and it will be a .zip.View Post

Do, not, under any circumstances, use the built-in OSX zipping feature to compress plug-ins. It is set up to save all of the Mac-specific information (such as resource forks and permissions), and is incompatible with every .zip expander, except for the one built into OSX 10.3 and up, and possibly (but don't count on it) the latest version of Stuffit.

A good free way to compress plug-ins so that they can be expanded easily on any platform is to use the prgrams in the BinAndZip package. Read the readme to find out which pair of programs you should use, and then .bin and .zip your plug. Just remember that you need to .bin every plug-in file (files that have plug-in data, like spob and ship, but not readmes or movies) seperately , and then .zip the entire folder.

You should also read Zacha Pedro's Plug-in Distribution Guide. Not only does it have good (albeit long-winded) explainations of compression formats, obeying what it says is also one of the official requirements for getting your plug posted.

Edwards

Leave him to me! I can explain! I have studied the problem for the longest! I... too late...

Edwards, on Jul 10 2005, 06:42 PM, said:

...

Edwards
View Post

Now there's a guy who understands me and what I write. By the way, indeed the latest Stuffit can interpret Panther's built-in zipping scheme, but it is OSX-only; I think there's an OSX-only util named Panther unzip that has been done as well (before Stuffit Expander supported it) for that purpose. But that leaves OS9 and Windows users out of the picture, so people, don't even think about using OSX's built-in zip feature. I beg you.

FedKiller, on Jul 10 2005, 10:48 AM, said:

Once you have compressed a file into a /sit (I have an ancient dropstuff- it only does .sits) you can turn them into .zip, .hqx, .bin, .sitx, .... anything else you can think of... by changing the file name, right?
View Post

That only works for files that use the same format, like HTML and TXT, for example.

David Arthur, on Jul 10 2005, 10:34 AM, said:

There's nothing weird about that - StuffIt Expander is free and bundled with Mac OS X, but DropStuff costs money.
View Post

Is there any way to stuff non- .sit things (which I don't want because they can not be attached o this board) without paying money? Aparently not the Mac "archive" feature- see below...

Firebird, on Jul 10 2005, 11:40 AM, said:

Stuff something with a zipping tool (like that built into OS X I guess) and it will be a .zip.
View Post

Zacha Pedro, on Jul 10 2005, 01:38 PM, said:

But that leaves OS9 and Windows users out of the picture, so people, don't even think about using OSX's built-in zip feature. I beg you.
View Post

Contradicting instuctions here... brain overload...
makes funny popping noise and starts to drool

So, can I use any free program that I have? I could use that, but PC users could not access it...

Did you read ZP's post at all? Use the very useful Bin-and-Zip package SP put together.

orcaloverbri9, on Jul 10 2005, 06:59 PM, said:

Did you read ZP's post at all? Use the very useful Bin-and-Zip package SP put together.View Post

Actually, it was my post that mentioned BinAndZip, although I did get the link from ZP's Plug-in Distribution Guide.

@FedKiller: As I said earlier:
"A good free way to compress plug-ins so that they can be expanded easily on any platform is to use the programs in the BinAndZip package. Read the readme to find out which pair of programs you should use, and then .bin and .zip your plug. Just remember that you need to .bin every plug-in file (files that have plug-in data, like spob and ship, but not readmes or movies) seperately, and then .zip the entire folder."

Edwards

This post has been edited by Edwards : 10 July 2005 - 10:34 PM

BTW, Zacha, your guide states that you shouldn't use .sit and everyone should use .sitx because of limitations in the older format. However I think someone on the Nova board mentioned recently that .sitx couldn't be used with certain older versions of Mac OS. Is this true? Should we really all be using just .bin.zip?

sitx can be opened by the latest Stuffit for OS9, 7.0.3, as I checked when changed the guide to advise to use sitx (but rechecked today to be sure). Granted, most OS9 installs (including mine, under OSX 10.2) come with 5.5 in the Internet utils, so this is not the most user-friendly, but it is still possible for OS9 users to expand .sitx, we'll have to tell them how to however.

Edwards, on Jul 10 2005, 10:31 PM, said:

Actually, it was my post that mentioned BinAndZip, although I did get the link from ZP's Plug-in Distribution Guide.

Oh. Terribly sorry.

Zacha Pedro, on Jul 11 2005, 08:03 AM, said:

sitx can be opened by the latest Stuffit for OS9, 7.0.3, as I checked when changed the guide to advise to use sitx (but rechecked today to be sure). Granted, most OS9 installs (including mine, under OSX 10.2) come with 5.5 in the Internet utils, so this is not the most user-friendly, but it is still possible for OS9 users to expand .sitx, we'll have to tell them how to however.
View Post

Okay then, I'll take your word for it. One problem I've had with sitx though is that Expander doesn't correctly indicate its progress. The bar will move steadily along til just about the end where it will say 5 seconds remaining when the truth is that its only done about 20%, depending on how big the file is. Anyone else had this? More noticeable with larger files.

BinAndZip worked for zipping things, but not binning them! I have OSX and can use OS9 programs with "Classic environment," so I tried all 4 of them. If you try to zip something by dropping it onto the icon, it puts a zipped file with the original file name + .zip in the same folder (I just use desktop) as the original file. This works for both Zippist (OSX) and MacCrypt (OS9). However, when I do the same for both of the binning programs, the file does not appear. I can even use the search feature with several different words included in the original name, turning up nothing but the original. Can it only be used for plugin files? I'll go try that, actually... be back in a second...

EDIT: Yes, works for plugins! I smile now.

This post has been edited by FedKiller : 11 July 2005 - 09:31 PM

Great! Make sure Stuffit Expander can unpack what you did, and it's (likely to be) good to go. In case of doubt, put the archive as an attachement here - I can analyse it to check everything is right.

FedKiller, on Jul 10 2005, 10:48 AM, said:

Once you have compressed a file into a /sit (I have an ancient dropstuff- it only does .sits) you can turn them into .zip, .hqx, .bin, .sitx, .... anything else you can think of... by changing the file name, right? The only problem is, then it says I can't open them because I don't have the right permissions or some other random thing like that. I have to turn it back into .sits to be opened. The .zips can be posted, but I have never got feedback saying I messed up stuffing it... Is that only my problem, and everyone else can open my files?
I have a OS 9 dropstuff, because my computer was originally from like 1998 (or 1997...) and there is a 30 day trial that I am halfway through. Is ther any other way to compress files? It is wierd, because the stuffit that came with the OS X installed on my computer only has the expander, not dropstuff. The expander is registered, but I need to pay $30 to keep using dropstuff... what can I do? (other than registering dropstuff for $30)
I have included some compressed files, originally .sits, but given file extensions of a few different kinds. tell me if you can open them and view the contents correctly.
View Post

it works for me: try setting back the date of your comp by 29 days if youve already used it 30. drop stuff looks at the date of your comp to determine how long its been used (i think).

This post has been edited by cooldude91 : 15 July 2005 - 09:20 AM