Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!twwells!frnkmth!jesse
From: jesse@frnkmth.uucp (Jesse Perry)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted
Subject: Re: Question About Compress - Will it work on VMS?
Summary: No, but a ported version is available
Message-ID: <1990Oct28.042630.8706@frnkmth.uucp>
Date: 28 Oct 90 04:26:30 GMT
References: <7553@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM>
Organization: Franklin Electronic Publishers, Mt. Holly, NJ
Lines: 30

In article <7553@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM> rcw@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM (Robert White) writes:
>Does anyone know whether compress works under VMS before I mail
>order the source from simtel?	Any pointers Unix<->VMS compression program
>would be helpful.

Standard Unix compress fails miserably under VMS, due to VMS'
multiplicity of file formats.  In 1987 I ported compress version
3.0 (by Thomas, McKie, Davies, Turkowski, Woods, and Orost) to VMS,
with what I considered good results -- it properly compressed and
restored without change all the common VMS file types:	text,
object, executable, stream, and especially backup sets.  I was at
RIT at the time, and I know the computing center there used it
extensively to reduce network transfer time for backup sets from
their many machines.

I believe it was included on one of the DECUS tapes from the second
half of 1987, under the name CMPR.  If you can't find it there, let
me know and I'll send you a (Unix) shar of the source.	If demand
warrants, I'll post to alt.sources.

(I must admit, though, that I have not kept it up to date -- I've
not had access to a VMS machine for a couple of years.	Still, I
can guarantee that it will give you a big headstart over trying
to port the Unix sources directly.)

> Robert C. White, Jr.
> The WhiteStar Corporation
> rcw@scicom.alphacdc.com

Jesse Perry	jesse@franklin.com	uunet!twwells!frnkmth!jesse