Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!bionet!agate!e260-1c.berkeley.edu!c60b-1eq From: c60b-1eq@e260-1c.berkeley.edu (Noam Mendelson) Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Re: help Message-ID: <1991Apr14.090235.1151@agate.berkeley.edu> Date: 14 Apr 91 09:02:35 GMT References: <1991Apr14.013243.29075@agate.berkeley.edu> <5863@vela.acs.oakland.edu> Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator) Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 42 In article <5863@vela.acs.oakland.edu> w8sdz@rigel.acs.oakland.edu (Keith Petersen) writes: >c60b-1eq@e260-1c.berkeley.edu (Noam Mendelson) writes: >>In article cho@sol4.cs.psu.edu (Sehyeong Cho) writes: >>>>In article <7323@munnari.oz.au> ksiew@ecr.mu.oz.au (Kok-Hsien SIEW) writes: >>>>> 1) Is there a pkzip/pkunzip for unix (main frame in my uni) >>>Does anyone know where it hides? >> . . . . . . . . . . . Phil Katz intended ZIP as a money-making >>scheme for the MSDOS market. The source code is not available. The >>ZIP file format is, however, and hence the presence of UNZIP programs. >>Theoretically, one could write a compatible ZIPping procedure, but they'll >>have to devise all their own compression code (meaning we'll probably >>never see one). >Apparently you've never heard of the Info-ZIP@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL >mailing list, a group devoted to deleloping UNZIP and ZIP for >minicomputers and mainframes. There is a working UNZIP (with source >code) for Unix, VMS, CMS, and MS-DOS - with others in the works. See >the pd1:, pd1:, pd1: and >pd1: directories on SIMTEL20. As I've already pointed out, there are working UNZIP programs because the ZIP format is publicly available. It is much less difficult to decompress code than to devise the compression schemes. >A Beta test version of ZIP is being tested right now. It's not ready >for public release however. Written by Phil Katz? In any case, there are more efficient compression programs available, such as Yoshi's LHa--a promising high-speed, high- compression program for which source code is already publicly available >If you are interested in helping to Beta test and develop these >programs, send email to Info-ZIP-Request@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL with >a request to be added to the mailing list. The prospect of a free (it will be free, I assume, since the source code will have to be distributed) ZIP package is interesting, however. -- +==========================================================================+ | Noam Mendelson ..!agate!ucbvax!web!c60b-1eq | "I haven't lost my mind, | | c60b-1eq@web.Berkeley.EDU | it's backed up on tape | | University of California at Berkeley | somewhere." |