Re: [MacPerl] FTP client? [Comments and Questions]

[mark@cheers.jsc.nasa.gov (Mark Manning/Muniz Eng.)]

According to Jon S. Jaques:
> 
> I had only thought of the web server to implement
> a sort of "client-server" situation, where the PB
> could make use of Greater power, I/O, and
> clock-speed, thus freeing it up to spend it's time
> actually copying files. Maybe even push them to
> the Mac via STDIN? The web server for our intranet
> will soon be full-time anyhow, so the overhead
> isn't exactly "extra."

Ummmmmmmmm.....  A web server would be bogged down by
however many requests you sent to it.  Thus, if you wanted
to do ten requests at one time, the web server would have
to handle all ten.  It's not necessarily slower, but it
could be.  Whereas, a single log-in for each of the ten
people and then each of them performing a file transfer
would not have the overhead of the web server as well.  But
I can see why you'd want to use the web server.  It might
be easier for you to program.  However the Net::FTP(?)
stuff should be really straight forwards.  I just used the
example provided by the writer of the module and it worked
really well.

> I haven't found any way to move more than one file
> at a time, anyways...

This is really quite easy.  All you have to do is to run
Netscape and try to download more than one file at a time.
I can usually get six or seven transfers going all at the
same time.  True, it does slow down the file transfer
because it splits the incoming signal via the TCP/IP
packets to the various downloads, but a PB with 8mb of
memory should be able to download at least two files at one
time.  Anarchie (the program and not Chris' module) can
also download multiple files at one time from a site.  And
I know Anarchie is AppleScriptable.  So you could use
Anarchie (a $10.00 shareware package) to do the file
transfers for you.  The only problem with doing this is
"How do you tell one download is through before starting
another?".  Or, in other words - if you use AppleScript to
make Anarchie (the program) do the file transfers - then
you could easily exceed the PBs' abilities and crash it.
This is why you should use Chris' program or Paul's
program.  Both can handle doing the single file transfers.
You just transfer the file to the Macintosh and then use
the RENAME command to move the file to the proper
directory.  (Or transfer it to the proper directory during
the transfer if there is a way to do that too.)

> I'm a bit of a Macintosh newbie... I was not aware
> that they didn't have full blown Ethernet speed
> capabilities on their own. No wonder it takes so
> much longer to move those files onto the Macs. Of
> course, this is the whole reason for using MacPerl
> to do this job... I'm testing the files as I go,
> and don't copy them unless they've either changed
> or don't exist on the Mac's destination folder.

Some Macintoshes do.  But the older Macs don't.  My PowerPC
doesn't have Ethernet capabilities though and it is less
than a year old.  However, I can buy a card and plug it in
to do Ethernet.  If you want to do a timed test of a file
transfer, then I would again suggest using Chris' Anarchie
or Paul' FTP programs.  It would be very simple to get the
time of day, transfer a file, and then find out the time of
day again and compare this to get your transfer rate.

Anyway, have fun!  :-)

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