  GIF files and FTP corruptions? GIF tools? 
 The Question is:
 
I have tried to transfer .gif files from my PC to my openVMS platform.  I can
 display the .gif files using mozilla, but not with the 'XGIF' tool.  Also vx
 cannot open the .gif files.  What can I do to display these files using XGIF?
 The Answer is :
 
  The OpenVMS Wizard would encourage contacting the maintainer(s) of
  the xgif tool, as the OpenVMS Wizard is not familiar with it and
  not in a position to provide support for it.
 
  This xgif tool appears to be part of a contributed-software package
  associated with Multinet, and with older releases of the OpenVMS
  Freeware, if not also distributed with other packages.  There are
  apparently full C source versions of xgif available, as well,
  based on a quick web search.
 
  Other Freeware tools that may be of interest include xv -- the
  OpenVMS Wizard will assume xv was intended when vx is referenced
  -- and ImageMagik.  An example version of a tool that is a Motif
  port of xgif is available as decw$examples:motifgif.
 
  The most common cause of problems such as those reported are record
  structure errors, record settings errors, and file transfer errors.
  OpenVMS has specific assumptions around file and record structures,
  and incorrect FTP transfer modes -- binary versus ASCII -- can lead
  to errors.  Also problematic are the record structures -- Windows
  sequential text files tend to be stream or stream_LF record formats,
  and such text files transfered in via FTP or DECnet or otherwise
  must be marked accordingly on OpenVMS.  See existing discussions
  of FTP file transfers and DCL commands such as SET FILE/ATTRIBUTES
  and CONVERT.  (The former DCL command is used to alter the file
  settings of the target file, while the latter is used to alter the
  record structures within the file while creating a copy of or a new
  version of the file.)
 
  If you decide to experiment with SET FILE or CONVERT, do keep
  copies of the original file, obviously.
 Answer written or last revised on  4-AUG-2004 
