Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!ogicse!milton!sumax!amc-gw!jwbirdsa
From: jwbirdsa@amc.com (James Birdsall)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: Compressors
Message-ID: <1991Jun19.160013.11391@amc.com>
Date: 19 Jun 91 16:00:13 GMT
References: <10002@discus.technion.ac.il>
Reply-To: jwbirdsa@europa.amc.com (James Birdsall)
Organization: Applied Microsystems, Redmond, WA
Lines: 32

[a reasonable discussion of the merits of various archivers deleted]

   The problem is that it isn't a static situation. For example, there are
supposed to be greatly-improved versions of both zoo and zip on the way
even now. The bottom line is that the best archiver tends to change every
several months.

   Furthermore, the effort involved in porting each latest-and-greatest to
all the different OSes and architectures [remember that the FTP archives
themselves typically run UNIX or something exotic, and hence need
archive-manipulation programs that run on the FTP host; furthermore,
there's a lot of value in being able to check an archive before you spend a
lot of time downloading it] should not be underestimated. It's a lot of
effort just to get something to run on a reasonably wide variety of UNIX
systems. And once the port is complete, the results must be distributed and
installed on thousands of systems all over the world. An archive is no good
if nobody can unpack it.

   In light of all this, it is hardly surprising that the maintainers and
moderators of the world have chosen to preserve their time, effort, and
sanity by picking a format that is "good enough" and sticking to it. Which
is not to say that nothing ever changes; if a new format makes a _large_
difference, it is adopted. Witness the changeover of most FTP sites from
arc to zip. But it takes a lot of time and effort to make such a change,
and it isn't worth going through that every time there's a new
latest-and-greatest that squeezes out another five K.

-- 
James W. Birdsall   WORK: jwbirdsa@amc.com   {uunet,uw-coco}!amc-gw!jwbirdsa
HOME: {uunet,uw-coco}!amc-gw!picarefy!jwbirdsa OTHER: 71261.1731@compuserve.com
"The OS shouldn't die every time the controller drools on a sector." -- a sysop
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