I have been following this thread, as it is of interest to me, but I
thought I'd pass the buck to my brother, a Mac developer who burns CDs for
file archiving. Below is his response:

His response starts with the statement, "you can't store a Mac resource
fork on a PC: is this true?"
>
>Not exactly.  PC Exchange, which is built into System 7.x, creates a hidden
>resource fork directory on PC disks that have Mac files on them, along with
>additional Finder info files which contain information about file type and
>creator, icons, position of icons in windows, etc.  Although these
>additional files are marked as hidden, they can be read and presumably
>copied by Windows '95 directly.  However...
>
>The normal method for sharing Mac files on Unix/DOS/Windows media is to
>compress and "binhex" them using Aladdin's Stuffit Lite (freeware).  Large
>files can be split onto several disks using Stuffit Deluxe.  On the Windows
>side, either WinZip or the Aladdin stuffit utility for Windows can
>decompress and read the files.  A Stuffit ".sit" file is completely
>flattened and does not have a meaningful resource fork, just an 8-bit data
>fork.  "BinHex" translation creates a 7-bit data fork (and a larger file),
>which can survive file transfers over the Internet.  A Stuffit ".sea" file
>DOES have a resource fork -- the code used to decompress the archive
>contained in the data fork.  Sending this via Internet can strip off the
>self-extractor, causing Stuffit to complain that the file appears to be
>corrupt; however, usually the data fork is intact.
>
>There is typically no image information in the resource fork of a Mac file,
>provided one is transferring TIFF, GIFF, JPEG/JFIF, PNG or even Windows BMP
>files.  Good shareware utilities for manipulating images include Thorsten
>Lemke's GraphicConverter on the Mac, or Larry Reeve's PolyBytes on Win32
>boxes.
>
Burning a hybrid CD readable by either a Mac or DOS PC ...
>
>You create a  Mac/ISO 9660 "hybrid" disk, use DOS style filenames (*.TIF,
>*.JPG, *.GIF, etc.) on the ISO partition, and ignore the resource forks.
>Put the normal Mac files on the Mac partition.  This duplicates the data,
>but CD's are cheap compared to their shelf life.  Astarte's Toast CD-ROM
>Pro software is probably the de facto standard for Mac, because so many
>worm drive manufacturers bundle it with their CD-Rs.  It is excellent.
>
>Otherwise, just use a ISO 9660 disk.  All Macs can read these, it's part of
>the standard Apple CD-ROM driver.  Again, DOS-style file names with
>meaningful suffices, and ignore the resource forks.  There is no functional
>difference between downloading such files from the Internet, or
>"downloading" them from an ISO 9660 CD.
>
>Ignoring the resource fork of a Mac image file generally means, at most,
>that any custom image icons and previews created by GraphicConverter or
>JPEGView will be stripped away.  This sacrifice is recommended for archival
>purposes anyway.
>
>Any text files used for additional file documentation should be stored in
>the Unix line ending style (LF), but not the Mac style (CR) or DOS style
>(CRLF).  Bare Bones Software's Brief text editor can read/write/convert
>these "strange" line endings on the Mac, and PFE, the Programmer's File
>Editor, can read/write/convert them on the Windows side.  Both are
>shareware.  The Unix style is standard on more installed workstations than
>Windows and Mac combined, by a factor of at least five.
>
>David C. Oshel           [log in to unmask]
>Cedar Rapids, Iowa, US   http://pobox.com/~dcoshel/
>"Tension, apprehension and dissension have begun." - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred
>Bester's _The Demolished Man_
Erratum...
>
>I'm not sure WinZip can read a ".sit" file, come to think of it.
>David C. Oshel           [log in to unmask]

Hope this is useful. I second the comment on Graphic Converter. An
excellent shareware image file conversion program, with basic image
processing  abilities (well, more than just "basic"). Now at version 2.9.1.

Phil

}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{((((
Philip Oshel
Station A
PO Box 5037
Champaign, IL  61825-5037
(217) 355-1143
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*** looking for a job again *****