Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!ginosko!uunet!mcsun!unido!pcsbst!cochise!roland
From: roland@cochise
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: PACK vs. reserved header elements ?
Message-ID: <1051@pcsbst.UUCP>
Date: 7 Sep 89 09:30:42 GMT
Sender: uusr@pcsbst.UUCP
Lines: 26

In article <4756@brains.UUCP> george_seto%brains@iisat.UUCP writes:
>
>  I have tried both the PACK and the DC Squish(borrowed) on my STadel
>software and PACK would not work on those files at all.

   Just yesterday I also tried PACK and found it really useful - it
reduced e.g. Uniterm from 177 KB to 110 KB without noticable
functional differences.

   However, it did not work on most program, complaining about
"fout in header" ( I don't understand dutch ... )

I found out that most programs _linked by Turbo C ST_ have
a nonzero value in the _first 'reserved' longword_ in the header!


   Can anybody ( Allan, please! ) tell me what is the meaning of this field
   ( the longword following symb_size ) and/or why TC uses it ???


Anyway, I just patched those offending bits to zero, and could then
PACK even the TC-programs, e.g. TC.PRG itself from 202 KB to 148 KB.
Great! ( My HD is 95% full ... )

  -- Roland Rambau

rra@cochise.pcs.com