Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!mcnc!decvax.dec.com!zinn!wgc386!slum!laird From: laird@slum.MV.COM (Laird Heal) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: Public Archive Format Issues Summary: Flame off! Keywords: encryption conversion issues Message-ID: <1990Sep21.165401.1756@slum.MV.COM> Date: 21 Sep 90 16:54:01 GMT References: <6050@spt.entity.com> <2267@runxtsa.runx.oz.au> <1990Sep20.013226.17253@eng.umd.edu> Organization: dis Lines: 94 In article <1990Sep20.013226.17253@eng.umd.edu>, russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto) writes: >In article <2267@runxtsa.runx.oz.au> clubmac@runxtsa.runx.oz.au (Australia's Largest Mac Users Group) writes: >>In article <6050@spt.entity.com> mdc@spt.entity.com (Marty Connor) writes: >>>Proposal for the Macintosh: >>>Stick with Stuffit 1.5.1 format for now. If a better format becomes > >>This is totally screwball. How many people seriously want to unstuff files >>on a Unix host? I compress all the binhex, download it using ZMODEM and use >>MacCompress to de-compress the binhex, then use StuffIt 1.5.1 to decode the >>binhex, then unstuff the resulting file. [As an aside, compressing the binhex of a compressed file is not optimal. Un-BinHex to a MacBinary II Stuffit archive on the host, that's better.] >> >>There is only one reason for not adopting Stuffit Deluxe archives, is that >>the format is not available to the infinitesimal group who want to unstuff on >>a machine other than a Macintosh. Since Stuffit Classic is still shareware, >>people can use the stuffit deluxe format, and only pay the shareware fee. [Oh, to digress, is this a unix network or what?] >> >>I can bet that Marty didn't pay his shareware fee of $20, like the thousands >>of shareware sneaks out there that use Stuffit for free. >*FLAME ON* >You presumptious shithead. What makes you think that YOUR situation is >universal, or even common? And where do you get off calling him a shareware >sneak based on no evidence? >*FLAME OFF* > Oh, stop it! Do not prejudge the author on the basis of his previous articles! I was all set when I noticed the author, saying to myself "I said that the next time I get another one of THOSE from HIM I am slipping him into my Kill file - but then I realized he had something to say. I disagree with him, but he had something to say, and said it. On the other hand, if he does fly off with another abusive discourse on a trivial topic, then I'm going to have to learn how to use the kill file for once. While I'm here... In article <2267@runxtsa.runx.oz.au>, clubmac@runxtsa.runx.oz.au (Australia's Largest Mac Users Group) writes: >In article <6050@spt.entity.com> mdc@spt.entity.com (Marty Connor) writes: >>Proposal for the Macintosh: > >[much initially almost abusive then almost reasonable discussion omitted] > >Yes, lets hold back progress for the benefit of a handful of people that Yes, let's hold back progress, if progress is the onsuit of closed computing! or let's make a stand in the pursuit of progress, if it is open standards and documentation of exactly what it is that the customer is getting. Do you have any software or hardware from a company that either went out of business or (should I mention Apple) decided to discontinue both production and support? Perhaps you did not mind being left in the cold but there is a better way, only if the relevant information is made available with the product. My serial port hard disk would not work with the 128K ROMs when I got it. It used a Davong controller board, but Davong was bankrupt and a fellow was repackaging them on his own. After debugging for an hour or so, I patched the Volume Manager with FEdit from the Macintosh Software Supplement distribution. I then called the vendor up to ask if he would like the patch. Man, when he called back did he ever want that patch! I cleaned it up to work on both ROMs before I sent it back to him, and all I asked for was the price of FEdit, and since I had heard about not getting the supposed upgrades even when sending the $40 in, I found FEdit Plus mail-order. The disk works with System 6, and surprisingly quickly, although I hardly ever use it any more. However, my point is that this fellow could not get the source code to his software. SCO, he said, had taken over support for Davong's customers and the source was all on Lisa disks. I offered to make some changes; I was running the Lisa Workshop (the last time I checked it still generated smaller code than MPW Pascal) but it was just unavailable to him. He was at the mercy of whatever bugs were in his binaries. It does not behoove us to put ourselves in that position if we do not have to. That is not progress. Laird Heal laird@slum.MV.COM Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of this thread: (Salem, NH) +1 603 898 1406 same time, same channel. -- Laird Heal laird@slum.MV.COM The world is my office. (Salem, NH) +1 603 898 1406 <-----I charge for opinions, though.