From: Colin_Douthwaite@equinox.gen.nz (Colin Douthwaite)
Date: Mon Apr 18 15:10:12 CDT 1994

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              Tips on viewing .vt animations with MSDOS
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Almost daily a request appears for help on viewing .vt animation
files. I therefore decided to write the following notes which refer
to viewing under MSDOS. I do not think the steps will be much
different on other Operating Systems.

Don't ask me how to fix up bad pictures - it usually involves a lot
of tedious work with a text editor - with little reward or
satisfaction. It simply is not worthwhile.

                                          -cfbd-  3 April 1994

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I use MSDOS to view .vt files.

Most animations seem to be produced on Unix systems.

Unfortunately .vt files do give variable results.

Some produce a lot of unwanted garbage on the screen. Others give
unsatisfactory pictures with symbols mixed up with letters in the
pictures.

Anything that looks too messy I just throw away. I don't want to
spend hours trying to fix whole files giving poor pictures.

Fairly minimal garbage I just edit out in a session with my word
processor editor. Any WP or Text editor should do the job.


Having said all that - the procedure I use is as follows:


PROCEDURE


1) Download the file from the newsgroup using normal methods.


2) Rename the .vt file  FILENAME.UUE ( not filename.vt which would give
   trouble later ).                    ^^^


3) Use a UUDECODE program to decode FILENAME.UUE:

            C> UUDECODE FILENAME.UUE

  This automatically produces a new file, FILENAME.VT, which appears
  in your directory.


4) I then use a CRLF conversion program, such as FLIP.EXE, which
   converts the line endings in the file from the Unix ending ( LF
   linefeed only ) to the MSDOS line endings which end in CRLF (
   Carriage Return plus Linefeed ).

        C> FLIP -mvb FILENAME.VT

   The -mvb switch in the command line ensures that FLIP.EXE will
   convert the file although it "sees" the ESC Codes as a binary
   format. Without the -b switch FLIP would refuse to convert the
   file because it identifies it as a binary file.

   Omission of this step often, but not always, gives you a broken
   up picture when you try to view the .vt file, due to the absence
   of Carriage Returns in the Unix format.


5) Check that you have the MSDOS program ANSI.SYS active on your
   machine.

   Ensure that your CONFIG.SYS file contains the line:

           device = ansi.sys


6) If all is well, all you need to do now to see the animation
   is use the MSDOS "type" command:

         C> type FILENAME.VT


  "cat"  -  the cat command is simply the Unix equivalent of the
            MSDOS "type" command.
            Some other systems use "list" for this same command.


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FLIP.EXE is available on the Simtel Archive and its main Mirror Site
oak.oakland.edu:

Directory pub/msdos/textutil/
 Filename   Type Length   Date    Description
==============================================
flip1exe.zip  B   14466  890731  Convert text files MSDOS<->UNIX format,
1of2
flip1src.zip  B   21577  890713  Convert text files MSDOS<->UNIX format,
2of2

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PS   Don't ask me how to make vt animations - I don't know !