Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!think!ames!killer!csccat!loci
From: loci@csccat.UUCP (Chuck Brunow)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Comparison of compaction routines
Message-ID: <530@csccat.UUCP>
Date: 1 May 88 18:03:48 GMT
References: <9331@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <824@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
Reply-To: clb@loci.UUCP (Chuck Brunow)
Organization: Loci (Software) Products
Lines: 37
Keywords: there is a distinction between compressors and archivers.

In article <824@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) writes:
>From article <9331@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>, by laba-5ac@web7f.berkeley.edu (Erik Talvola):
>> ... PKARC seemed to be
>> the best - it generated very small compressed files and ran the quickest.
>
>That was the conclusion in my article in the May 1987 Dr. Dobbs.  In fact,
>PKWARE is now quoting that article in its ads :-)
>-- 

	I believe that a distinction should be made between compaction
	and archiving. This was a flaw in the original posting which
	purported to compare compaction routines. All it really did
	was to compare LZW to LZW to LZW ... Sometimes it's 12 bit,
	sometimes 13 bit, sometimes 16 bit, but nearly always Lempel-
	Ziv.

	That is the last time that there is any reasonable uniformity:
	everything breaks down because it isn't a question of which
	archiver is the best, because everyone must have each and every
	one in order to follow this group. There is no order, rhyme or
	reason to it. That was what prompted my earlier posting about
	the insanity of "(shar(uuencode(arc)))". I don't want them all,
	I don't even want one: I find another layer of unpacking to
	be a pain in the @@@. 

	Another point that I raised in my previous posting was that
	the authors of "shareware" archivers must be rich or they've
	been robbed. Well, the results are in: grand larceny is rampant.
	Anyone who writes software for shareware distribution should
	heed the advice of B. Franklin ("Poor Richard's Almanac):
	"Expect nothing and you'll never be disappointed".

	Now, before you leap to your keyboards to send me your knee-
	jerk reaction to why I'm wrong, why your favorite archiver
	is best, or anything else, forget it. I already know that
	the best compaction routine is LZW, the best archiver hasn't
	been written yet, and the best OS is Unix.