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From: ts@uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.archives
Subject: Archiver choices at an FTP site (garbo) (Was Re: Compressors)
Summary: There is a very strong inertia in changing archiver methods
Message-ID: <1991Jun24.181748.12705@uwasa.fi>
Date: 24 Jun 91 18:17:48 GMT
References: <10002@discus.technion.ac.il>
Organization: University of Vaasa, Finland
Lines: 46

In article <10002@discus.technion.ac.il> nyh@GAUSS.TECHNION.AC.IL (Nadav Har'El) writes:
>I have tested 10 of the most availiable compressors (all of which can be
>downloaded from garbo.uwasa.fi). For the archived files I arbitarily chose
>pak's distribution file, which contains docs,exes, and other files, all
>together 203497 bytes. I've classified the compressors by the number of
>bytes after the compression.
>Extention	Compressor	Size after compression	Rank
>------------------------------------------------------------------
>.arj		arj -jm		85907			Great
[Much (interesting text) deleted]
>Notice the great difference between the compressors I've classified as Bad,
>and the others. Zoo, which ranks one of the lowest, is the compressor most
>widely used in the c.b.i.p group. Also, pkzip, the form most widely used in
>ftp sites, is only the fourth out of ten, which a very big difference between
>it and arj.
>Therefore, I suggest ftp sites should use the arj format, instead any of the
>others. I know it is hard work converting all the files to arj, so the sites
>can make all new archives in the arj format.
[Much (interesting text) deleted]
>preferred archiver, he can post a reply. Maybe some site admistrators could
>post a reply, why they prefer using other archivers.
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Nadav Har'El                                         nyh@gauss.technion.ac.il
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

   I am very pleased at the interest shown in the maintenace of FTP
sites, and naturally welcome the suggestion.  However, this has been
discussed previously at several occasions, and the reply has not
changed.  Converting the files at an FTP site to another format is a
_major_ effort.  The benefits would have to be really significant to
warrant the effort involved.  We use several formats at
garbo.uwasa.fi archives (since files come in in the various formats)
but I prefer keeping .zip our principal method unless something
truly revolutional comes along.  And nothing such is in the sights
at the moment (even given these .arj test results).  
   BTW, I often recommend to users to utilize archive shells like
/pc/arcers/shez62.zip which make the handling easy on a PC whatever
the archiving method. 
   All the best, Timo

...................................................................
Prof. Timo Salmi
Moderating at garbo.uwasa.fi anonymous ftp archives 128.214.12.37
School of Business Studies, University of Vaasa, SF-65101, Finland
Internet: ts@chyde.uwasa.fi Funet: gado::salmi Bitnet: salmi@finfun