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From: rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold)
Newsgroups: comp.compression
Subject: Re: PKZIP 2.0
Message-ID: <1991May20.212143.16256@qualcomm.com>
Date: 20 May 91 21:21:43 GMT
References: <4780.28346102@ieeefs.ieee.org>
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In article <4780.28346102@ieeefs.ieee.org> thom@f517.n107.z1.ieee.org (Thom Henderson) writes:
>
> > It never fails... As soon as new compression programs appear which can
> > seriously challenge PKZIP, he brings out a new one which squelches them.
>
>"As soon as"??  Make that "a year or so later" and maybe you'll have a point.  

It's only lately that new versions of LHA and ARJ have become real threats to
PKZIP.  Version 2 of ARJ just came out.  Before that, ARJ compressed better,
but wasn't fast enough to be worth the switch for many.  That's changed, now,
and entire BBSes are beginning to convert to ARJ.  I can think of quite a few
in San Diego alone.  This has only been happening for about a month, so he's
only a month into the "crisis."  If he releases a new PKZIP within a month
I'd call that fairly "as soon as."  

He did take a while from PAK to ZIP, but that was forced because of a legal
challenge, not a technical challenge, and starting over from almost scratch
can take a while.

-- 
Standard disclaimer applies, you legalistic hacks.     |     Ron Dippold