ASC2BIN.EXE, an improved ASC to HP 48 Binary file converter
From: Detlef Mueller <detlef@mwhh.hanse.de>
Newsgroups: comp.sources.hp48
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1991 23:56:34 GMT

[This is a great battery saver!  Instructions: At the DOS prompt, type:

    ASC2BIN < File.asc > File

 including the "<" and ">" symbols.  "File.asc" must be an ASC-format file,
 created with Bill Wickes' ->ASC program, and uploaded to disk in ASCII mode.
 (The *.ASC files on all Goodies Disks are examples of such files.) "File"
 will be the resulting binary downloadable version, the same as if you had
 downloaded the ASC version, run ASC-> on it, and uploaded that back to
 disk... but a lot faster and with no battery drain!  Note: You don't need to
 do this for the ASC files on the Goodies Disks; I've already done it for you.
 ASC2BIN is for the ASC files you get elsewhere.

 There was an ASC2BIN.EXE on Goodies Disk #2, but it had bugs.  This one
 works. -jkh-]

Hi, out there.

In one of the articles in comp.sys.hp48, Chris Spell wrote that he has
problems downloading big "ASC only" programs.

Here is a little ASC-to-binary converter (written in ANSI C) for anybody who
has the same problem or no UUDECODE.

[Note: Need UUDECODE?  See UUDECODE.DOC on this disk.  -jkh-]

Feed the program via stdin with an extracted ASC program; it will generate a
downloadable output to stdout. The output file size is limited to ~32 kbytes
(on UNIX no problem to change, but IMO not necessary :-).

The 'unsigned' data type is assumed to be at least 16 bit in size.
ASCII character set is assumed.

I wrote the program using BORLAND C++ under MesSy-DOS , but it shouldn't be
a problem to port it to other compilers/machines (operating system dependent
lines are marked in the C source code).

CU,
	8-), Detlef

P.S.	Sorry about the poor documentation and the low error checking. I've
	neither time to write a serious doc, nor time to extend the program,
	so if there are any questions or problems, feel free to mail me. DM

[Note: This ASC2BIN is better than the one on Goodies Disk #2, which sometimes
 gave bogus results.  Do not use that one.  -jkh-]