UUAppend v1.0 Readme (10 August 1997)

UUAppend is a small and simple freeware program that I wrote in order to append a number of UU-Encoded files together, forming one file for easy decoding.

When a UU-Encoded file has been sent through Email, the file usually arrives as many smaller files, which have to be put together to form the original.  If you have an Email client which does this automatically, then you won't need UUAppend.  However, if, like me, your Email client cannot do this itself, then UUAppend can save you a lot of time.

After many time consuming and often unsuccessful attempts at manually joining 100+ Email messages, I decided that it was time I wrote a program to do the job for me.  Of course, the user still has to do a bit of the work.  Namely, creating the text files to be appended...

These text files have to be in the form of 1.TXT, 2.TXT etc.  They can be easily made by using the "Save As..." feature in most good Email clients.  Make sure you save the messages in TXT format, and not Email format.  Also make sure that you number the messages correctly, otherwise the resultant file will not be legible.

Type "UUAppend" to run the program.  You will be prompted to enter the number of files to be appended.  For example, if you have made 20 .TXTs, then enter "20".  Next, you are asked to enter the working directory.  This is the directory where the input files are situated, and this is also where the output file will be created.  Finally you are asked to enter the desired name of the output file.  By default, this file will have a .UUE extension, so enter ONLY the filename (max 8 characters).  If all goes well, the files will appended, and the output file will be ready for decoding, using any UU-Decoding software.

It should be noted that by simply using DOS "Copy", files can be sequentially appended.  In this case however, the headers and footers will remain, which sometimes confuses certain UU-Decoders. UUAppend will remove all the headers and footers, so that the output file resembles the original, before it was split up.

Another thing to note is that sometimes, the file being sent is divided up into a number of "parts", by the sender.  Then, your ISP or Email client may further split those "parts" up into smaller pieces.  When this happens, and there are many messages to be appended, it can become difficult to number all of them, because at the start of each "part", the numerbing begins at 1 once again.  It is often better to append the various "parts", and then in turn append them into the main output file.  This can be confusing, so whenever possible, try to specify to the sender, not to break the file up before sending, or at least, into as few "parts" as possible.

I hope that you find UUAppend useful.  Feel free to distribute UUAppend, along with this documentation.  I would also like to hear from you if you have any ideas or comments.  Future versions of UUAppend (if the need arises), will rely on input from you.  Thank you.

St.Nick
Nick Soper
St.Nick@connx.co.za
