Msg: 6523 *Conference*
05-11-96 00:58:33
From: JAMES KENNEY
To : RICHARD HANSON
Subj: UPLOADS UPLIFT
What a pleasant surprise to find my files rearranged! I was always bugged by the bottom-to-top file sequence and the lack of alphabetical order. You did a fine job, but the VOYEUR doc files are transposed. The JMKFLS.DO descriptions file is on top where it belongs; the check file JMKCHK.DO should be kept on the line below it. I'm still revising JMKFLS, so will be uploading new versions of both. Since the 45 character descriptions in the Uploads section are so frequently inadequate, I wonder if other uploaders could be persuaded to provide similar description files and also provide checksum info as a check on corruption and revision. For obtaining checksums, CHKSUM.BA and CHECKSUM.BAS are convenient to use since they have just been revised to allow the data to be appended to a formatted file (as in JMKCHK.DO), and identical checking can be done in any Kyocera notebook or in an IBM type computer (under either GW-BASIC or QBASIC); those with other preferences should upload the check programs they use (preferably ones going beyond a simple checksum, which is insensitive to transpositions and other permutations). I would like to see a stand-alone CRC (cyclic redundancy check) program or a detailed description of the algorithm. In addition to providing a full simple checksum, CHKSUM.BA and CHECKSUM.BAS generate a cyclically weighted sum by multiplying the ASCII values by succesive integers taken modulus 64 (actually using AND 63, which is faster than MOD 64) and taking the sum modulus 16K (using AND (16K-1)). Are there any other ideas to improve on checksum? Jim