Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dhmst1
From: dhmst1@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Daniel H Marx)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops
Subject: Re: Data Compression On The Fly
Message-ID: <123781@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
Date: 3 May 91 14:40:48 GMT
References: <1991May1.163537.6024@cerritos.edu>
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Lines: 28

In article <1991May1.163537.6024@cerritos.edu> brantley@cerritos.edu writes:
>
>         I am interested in hearing from any laptop or notebook users that
>         are using:
>
>         	- Stacker;
>         	- Double Disk;
>         	- Squish Plus;
>         	- or any device driver based data compression utility.
>
I have been using Stacker for about a month now and am very happy with it.
I am able to store about 35Meg on my 20Meg drive.  I have found very few
incompatabilities.  I used to use PcKwik for my disk caching, spooling and
screen review because they can all share the same extended memory on an as
needed basis.  Unfortunately the PcKwik cache doesn't recognize the new
compressed Stacker file because stacker stores in 512 blocks rather than
1024 ones (thus a little text file that is really 200bytes only takes 512
bytes rather than 1024). 
When I first thought about using Stacker I posted the same question you have.
I got one response from someone who said he couldn't use SmartDrive with
stacker but I've since heard of others who are.  Anyhow, Satcker come with
it's own cache that you can use although it can only be configured for
conventional memory.  Because of on the fly compression, a 40K cache only takes
20 K but even so, stacker takes up about 40K on my machine even without any
caching so 640K ram starts getting pretty tight.
These are the only problems I've encountered.  Becaused a laptop is so 
dependent on it's hard drive whenever away from home base, I think that
Stacker is well worth considering.