HQX installer.....From PC?

[StoneCOM]

Anyone know how I can make an HQX installer from my PC for a Mac? I have Alladin Dropstuff and have made a .sit file but need to make is a Mac installable HQX for my installer.

[SJT]

hqx isn't an installer it's a file format, like sit.

Mac files come with two "forks" one holds the data, the other the resources for the file (it's icon, type etc)

hqx is used to store the resources of mac files in one file as other filesystems (dos, unix) don't support two forks for a file, so the resource fork gets deleted,
this can result in file corruption.

in other words hqx, like sit, is a way of putting the two forks into one so those files will survive on other platforms and over the internet. you only need to do one or the other, not both, just as long as you've got the file extension on the end.
Then when it gets to a mac, that mac can decode the file and seperate the two forks for use.

[StoneCOM]

How can I create an HQX on a PC?

[SJT]

I don't know of any utilities that can create hqx files on pcs, you'll probably have to do it on a mac.
But there's no point in doing it on a pc anyway, the resource forks that hqx is designed to save have already been destroyed (if they existed) because your files are on pc already; hqx is for transfering from one mac to another mac via pc's, its so that the pcs don't damage the files on the way.

hqx files are not a form of compression (sit files are), they are a form of encoding.

If you like you can create a self extracting sit file (.sea) instead, I think dropstuff does this (it does on mac for pc, so should do it the other way round too).

Or if you want, email me and i'll hqx the files for you and then send them back

[Edited by SJT on 06-14-2001 at 03:49 PM]