Re text/binary:

NOTEPAD is not a text editor. It is a bug. NOTEPAD compatibility 
is not a valid concern. Seriously!

Why hang on to ancient conventions such as the distinction between 
binary and text mode?

It is useless anyway. It _used_ to be like that if a file was 'text', 
it was ASCII (aka ISO 646) text, and could be transmitted safely through
7-bit channels. 

That was long ago. Most of my 'text' files use 8-bit or 16-bit character
sets, and you have to know beforehand, 'cause the file itself doesn't
say 
what character set is used. I don't want any automatic conversion of any
characters, and I most certainly don't want truncation at first ^Z.

Why should I want to open a file in 'text' mode? What if I run a cygwin 
application to write a 'text' file that is part of a MacOS application?
I need three different record separators, and I can't infer which to use
just from what OS the application is running on. BTW, this is an actual 
example of what I use cygwin tools for.


Kind regards

Peter Ring.


-----Original Message-----
From: Earnie Boyd [ mailto:earnie_boyd@yahoo.com ]
Sent: Monday, March 08, 1999 14:49
To: Smith, Martin; Cygwin
Cc: 'tolj@uni-duesseldorf.de'
Subject: RE: ÆANNÅ Cygwin DEV survey


---"Smith, Martin" <martin@exchange.Scotland.NCR.COM> wrote:
8<
> *	What about text/binary mounts - I get the feeling binary mounts are
> preferred for most applications but, by default, the Cygnus tools
install
> with text mounts. Is it wise to change this to binary for a
'development'
> install or not?
8<

NO! The preferred method is text mounts.  That is the reason for the
default.  If a program requires binary mounts then the program isn't
properly ported.  Switching to binary mounts causes other problems. 
In a program always _SPECIFY_ whether it is to be opened for text mode
processing or binary mode processing, don't rely on the default.  A
file should be opened for text mode processing if the file can
potentially be read or created by humans with a text mode editor, such
as NOTEPAD.  All other files should be opened for binary mode
processing.

<snip>

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