Re: solving the SFTP text mode issue

[Albert-Lunde%northwestern.edu@localhost (Albert Lunde)]

> > Ugly hacks might be required to determine end-of-line representation
> > (or character encoding, or text vs. binary files) in the general case.
> > (It seems to be that this is one more reason to keep any ugly hacks
> > on the platform where the problem exists, (rather put lots of varients
> > into a wire protocol for a text mode) and to make support for a text mode 
> > transfer optional.)
> You do not need to have a bit that indicates the end of line format
> for a file.  This can be determined along with the classification of
> character set by performing a file scan prior to the transfer. For

File scans _are_ an ugly hack compared to reliable file attributes...
in my sordid past I've written one for determing character encoding and other
attributes of files under CDC NOS, with 6/12 bit character encodings.
;)

Anyway, with a single over-the-wire text encoding, or as few varients
as possible, most of this stuff doesn't need to be in the wire
protocol, or in interoperable clients on another OS.

--
    Albert Lunde          Albert-Lunde%northwestern.edu@localhost (new address)
                          Albert-Lunde%nwu.edu@localhost (old address)