You do the transfer in binary mode and what do you end up with? Utter garbage!

Incorrect. Again. What you end up with is an XML file encoded in UTF-EBCDIC.

Your supposition that your transfer tools should be able to handle all necessary conversions for you is just wrong-headed.

Let's change this assumption...

The only access available is ftp.

... and assume instead that the only available access is via a webserver.

Since it isn't going to do any conversions for you, what are you going to do? Pull out iconv, of course. Or an equivalent tool. Or do nothing so long as your tool set handles the encoding without problems.

Consider unpacking (on z/OS, if you like) an archive file containing thousands of different XML files with different encodings, created on different platforms. Then someone gives you the filename of one of those and tells you they need you to transfer it to a totally different platform. Whatchagonnado?

I'll gift you a hint. Under ASCII mode [. . . snip . . .]

And I've already gifted you the hint: don't use ASCII mode.

Update:

The point of ASCII mode, is that the source encodes the data into a known format: "8-bit NVT-ASCII". At the destination, that format is then converted to whatever local format is required. The point of this is that each system only needs to know how to convert from its local format and the "well-known format".

You know, that whole paragraph explains a lot. Are you perhaps just so steeped in the old ways of doing things that you completely fail to recognize what advantages a universal cod(e)ing imparts and the problems it solves?

Look you fatuous idiot. I didn't invent FTP. I'm simply explaining you the way it is designed to work.

Designed & codified & verified and RFC'd, by people who have some idea of what they are doing.

Unlike you who have no F***ing idea, but continue to spout crap anyway.

YOU WERE WRONG! YOU ARE WRONG! YOU WILL CONTINUE TO BE WRONG! Accept it and move on.

---

With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

The start of some sanity?

Wow. True colors and all that.

I'm simply explaining you the way it is designed to work.

No, you aren't. And I know how it works anyway, thanks much.

I'll remind you that sub-thread started with your assertion that "unicrap" was going to make the "RFCs" "messy".

Which is a bunch of hooey, of course, apparently originating with a deep misunderstanding of both the nature of unicode and the appropriate use of FTP.

It is obvious that peeling away these layers of misconception has made you uncomfortable... but I'm both surprised and disappointed by your transformation into a complete raving lunatic.

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";