Binary to Decimal problems

Question

Ok to give a background to why i am writing this and so everyone has a better understanding of exactly what it is that i want it to do it goes like this.... My girlfriend got a message from a friend that was all in ones and zeros, and no its not because something on one of the mail servers is messed up he meant for it to be that way. But through the process of converting the 8 digit binary numbers into decimal values so that the corresponding ANSI character could be found I decided that it was taking to damn long so i would just write a prog to do it for me and then i could send back an annoying long message to that guy with ease. Only there is a catch over the summer i went from hotshot for a newb to a newb without a clue, i more or less didnt write a single line of code over 4 months and now i am having problems.
I wanted to write a program that could-
-convert long strings of chars into all 8 digit binary code
-as well as convert large blocks of 8 digit binary back into ANSI letter values and then ANSI characters
-I want it to use a frame and have a relativly simple usage procedure
Now that you know what i set out to do I can show you how far i got -
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.GradientPaint.*;
public class BinaryToDec extends JFrame implements ActionListener
     // member variables
     JButton quit;
     JButton color;
     JButton convert;
     JLabel     label11_5, labelPassingWord;
     JTextField inputBinary, outputDecimal;
     Color      colorStore;
     String drawString;
     String bin;
     public BinaryToDec()
          drawString = "";
          setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          setLocation(100,250);
          setTitle("Binary to Decimal");
          setSize(420,200);
          getContentPane().setBackground(Color.BLACK);
          getContentPane().setLayout(null);
          quit= new JButton("DONE");
          quit.setForeground(Color.GREEN);
          quit.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
          quit.setBounds(100,10,75,20);
          getContentPane().add(quit);
          quit.addActionListener(this);
          color= new JButton("Bkgnd Clr");
          color.setForeground(Color.GREEN);
          color.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
          color.setBounds(15,10,75,20);
          getContentPane().add(color);
          color.addActionListener(this);
          convert= new JButton("Convert to Decimal");
          convert.setForeground(Color.GREEN);
          convert.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
          convert.setBounds(185,10,75,20);
          getContentPane().add(convert);
          convert.addActionListener(this);
          label11_5 = new JLabel("Enter a Binary Number");
          label11_5.setBounds(75,60,250,20);
          label11_5.setForeground(Color.GREEN);
          getContentPane().add(label11_5);
          inputBinary = new JTextField(25);
          inputBinary.setBounds(5,40,225,20);
          inputBinary.setForeground(Color.BLACK);
          getContentPane().add(inputBinary);
          inputBinary.addActionListener(this);
          labelPassingWord = new JLabel("Your Deciaml Equivilant");
          labelPassingWord.setBounds(75,120,250,20);
          labelPassingWord.setForeground(Color.GREEN);
          getContentPane().add(labelPassingWord);
          outputDecimal = new JTextField(25);
          outputDecimal.setBounds(5,100,225,20);
          outputDecimal.setForeground(Color.BLACK);
          getContentPane().add(outputDecimal);
          outputDecimal.addActionListener(this);
          setVisible(true);
     }// end of constructor
     public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent evt)
          if(evt.getActionCommand().equals("DONE"))
               System.out.println("Quit Caught");
               int choice = JOptionPane.showConfirmDialog(null , "You Pressed " + evt.getActionCommand() + " are you sure?"
                    , "Close Frame",JOptionPane.YES_NO_OPTION);
               if(choice == 0)
                    this.dispose();
               if (evt.getSource() == color)
                    Color color = Color.lightGray;
                    color = JColorChooser.showDialog(BinaryToDec.this,"Choose a color",color);
                    getContentPane().setBackground(color);
               if (evt.getSource() == convert)
                    bin = inputBinary.getText();
                    int strLength = bin.length();
                    int pos1=0, pos2=7;
                    String temp = "";
                    String Decimal1 = "";
                    String Decimal2 = "";
                    int binLength = 8;
                    int count = 0;
                         do
                              temp = bin.substring(pos1,pos2);
                              Decimal1 = Convert(temp);
                              Decimal2 = Decimal2 + "" + Decimal1;
                              pos1 = pos1 + binLength;
                              pos2 = pos2 + binLength;
                              count++;
                              outputDecimal.setText(Decimal2);
                              repaint();
                         }while((strLength/8) >count);
     }//end of actionPerform
     public void paint( Graphics g)
          super.paint(g);
     public String Convert(String a)
          int ctr=1, decimal=0;
          for (int i = a.length()-1; i>=0; i--)
          if(a.charAt(i)=='1')      decimal+=ctr;
          ctr*=2;
          String converted = "" + decimal;
          return converted;
     public static void main(String args[])
          System.out.println("Binary to Dec");
          BinaryToDec in = new BinaryToDec();
     }// end of main()
}// end of class FrameExample1
OK so other than that i decided to play with some of the paint functions i more or less stayed on task, at first i had it just convert 8 digit binary nums into decimal form using this -
          int ctr=1, decimal=0;
          for (int i = a.length()-1; i>=0; i--)
          if(a.charAt(i)=='1')      decimal+=ctr;
          ctr*=2;
which i found in someone elses post and made some changes to, thank you someone whoever you are i hope you see this, anyways,.. then i decided i wanted it to check the length of a string and divide it by 8 assuming that it it a perfect block of 8 digit nums and then cut it into substring and go through the proccess of converting the binary to deciaml one piece at a time. I did it more or less, well it compiles right but whenever you put in more than one 8 digit binary number it ends up giving you some really strange decimal numbers and i cant seem to figure out why the hell it is doing this.??? I was hoping that some one could help me out.
If you read this far than thanks for taking the time on my post :)

Answer 1

Did you try to decode that message by hand and verified that it really is encoded the way you think it is?
Here some code to try
public static void decode(String fileIn, String fileOut) {
        try {
        FileReader in=new FileReader(fileIn);
        PrintWriter out=new PrintWriter(fileOut);
        char[] buffer=new char[8];
        int i;
        do {
            i=in.read(buffer, 0, 8);
            if(i==8) {
                out.write(Integer.parseInt(new String(buffer),2));
        } while(i==8);
        in.close();
        out.close();
        } catch (Exception e) {}
    public static void encode(String fileIn, String fileOut) {
        try {
        FileReader in=new FileReader(fileIn);
        PrintWriter out=new PrintWriter(fileOut);       
        int i;
        while( (i=in.read()) >= 0 ) {
            String str=Integer.toBinaryString(i);
            for(int j=str.length(); j<8; j++)
                out.write('0');
            out.write(str);
        in.close();
        out.close();
        } catch (Exception e) {}
    }