Back when i used to use
BBSes, this was the original
file transfer mode god. We (the ignorant
end users who just wanted to download
files), never knew anything much about it (it was just
there, like
oxygen is just
there. You don't ask questions about what oxygen is), and we didn't realize how much it sucked because we had never used anything better.
File resume? What? The idea that transfers could be
aborted or
dropped and started again later was foreign enough it never occurred to most of us, at least those of us who were in the
fifth grade at the time. If your file transfer bombed (well,
when your file transfer bombed. Under xmodem, it
always bombed), you just started it over. If the file was larger than could be slurped over a
2400 baud connection in the
hour connection time limit your
account had, the only thing you could do is ask the
sysop for an extension that day.
Eventually the sysops installed zmodem and tried to get everyone to switch to it. Eventually i actually figured out how to go into my preferences and specify zmodem as the default. And then, in shocked, joyous amazement, i discovered that file transfers could be effortless things.