Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!sage.cc.purdue.edu!ar4
From: ar4@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Piper Keairnes)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: StuffIt Deluxe (Compactor)
Keywords: StuffIt, Compactor
Message-ID: <4390@sage.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 29 Aug 90 14:24:26 GMT
References: <1990Aug29.093732.7927@cs.UAlberta.CA>
Organization: Purdue University
Lines: 38

antoine@cs.UAlberta.CA (Antoine Verheijen) writes:

>I think the suggestion is for everyone to start using UnStuffIt Deluxe for
>un-archiving since it is publically available (where?) to everyone. This way,
>it doesn't matter if StuffIt 1.5.1 or StuffIt Deluxe was used to archive.

That WAS the original intent of my message. I'm sure that it will be
publically available on ftp very soon. I know that several BBSs already have
it on them.

>   2) Compactor uses unknown/undocumented data structures and compression
>      methods. This eliminates the possibility of developing tools on 
>      other systems for processing compactor files (as is possible with
>      StuffIt files) and makes it virtually impossible to try to recover
>      partial contents in the case of a corrupted archive.

Come to think of it... I've never been able to recover a corrupted archive
in Stuffit either. But then, corrupt is corrupt, eh?

>Personally, I wish the PKZIP guys would produce a version of their product
>for the Mac. They know how to produce fast programs that provide very good
>compression results and (like Raymond Lau) they're not quite so quiet about
>what they're doing.

What kind of popular compression methods are there? Stuffit uses the LZW and
Huffman compression methods. By the way, what does Stuffit do to make the
difference between the the Faster-Fast-Better modes? And is it possible for
someone to make an external customized compression that will out-perform
Stuffit Deluxe?

I hear about Compactor being faster and more efficient than Stuffit. Has
anyone taken to finding out why? I think that Raymond Lau's products look
very useful and very well designed. Now all he needs is a little kick in the
read-end to improve the compression technology.

-----
Piper Keairnes
ar4@sage.cc.purdue.edu