Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!o.gp.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!vd09+ From: vd09+@andrew.cmu.edu (Vincent M. Del Vecchio) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps Subject: Re: Compactor - A reason not to use Message-ID: Date: 12 Jan 91 22:11:12 GMT References: <41470@nigel.ee.udel.edu>, Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 27 In-Reply-To: draphsor@elaine5.stanford.edu (Matt Rollefson) writes: > johnston@oscar.ccm.udel.edu writes: > >forward way; it only makes sense that the author of Compactor would > >incorporate this information in a straight-forward way. > > I'm sorry, you're wrong here, at least for CatStuff. It states quite > clearly in the stack that the author of CatStuff asked for, and > received, information about the format of Compactor archives directly > from the author of Compactor, Bill Goodman... I disagree somewhat with your interpretation. I believe that Bill Goodman would be more than willing to disclose header-type information for incorporation into programs like FileList and CatStuff; this information should not be hard to deduce anyway and disclosing it doesn't give an advantage to your competitors. On the other hand, in light of what I have heard about his negotations with CompuServe, he seems to be reluctant to disclose the actual compression format with which the files in the archive are compressed or decompressed (typically, the filenames, orig. and compressed sizes, etc. of the compressed files are stored in plaintext (uncompressed) in the data fork of the archive file). Perhaps a good way to put it would be to say that the archive format is known, but the compression format is still not. Disclaimer: This is mostly speculation on my part. -Vincent Del Vecchio vd09@andrew.cmu.edu #include "stdsig.h"