Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!watmath!kgdykes
From: kgdykes@watmath.waterloo.edu (Ken Dykes)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: A Unix worthy Compress/Uncompress for the PC
Message-ID: <30122@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 11 Oct 89 23:44:57 GMT
References: <1240@marlin.NOSC.MIL> <40116@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Reply-To: kgdykes@watmath.waterloo.edu (Ken Dykes)
Organization: S.D.G. UofWaterloo
Lines: 29

In article <40116@bu-cs.BU.EDU> madd@cs.bu.edu (Jim Frost) writes:
>In article <1240@marlin.NOSC.MIL> jbjones@marlin.nosc.mil.UUCP (John B. Jones) writes:
>|I'm searching for a compress/uncompress which will uncompress Unix
>|compressed files on my AT.  Does anyone have a copy they could send?
>|It has to do 16 bit uncompression, I believe.  
>
>I don't believe you'll find one.  UNIX does 16-bit L-Z compression,
>which requires something like 512k data space to operate, leaving
>precious little space for the code on a full 640k machine.  Most PC
>L-Z compression utilities use 12-bit, which fits much more comfortably.


yes & no
if you get the MKS Toolkit with its compress/uncompress you do have an
option, both the unix and MKS versions accept a command-line argument
defining howmany bits to use in the LZ algorithm, the MKS/DOS version
allows a maximum of 14bits i believe
A scenario like this will work:
   unix>compress -b14 file
   unix>8bit_filetran file.Z
   dos>uncompress file.z >file

I wouldnt be suprised if other versions of compress also have a similar
-bits type of option.
  -ken
-- 
   - Ken Dykes, Software Development Group, UofWaterloo, Canada [43.47N 80.52W]
          kgdykes@watmath.waterloo.edu  [129.97.128.1]
          kgdykes@waterloo.csnet      kgdykes@water.bitnet     watmath!kgdykes