Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!unisoft!hoptoad!gnu
From: gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: SEA files against pkarc author
Message-ID: <4750@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 20 Jun 88 06:29:16 GMT
References: <597@bpa.BELL-ATL.COM> <2409@ukecc.engr.uky.edu> <733@hadron.UUCP> <2693@bigtex.uucp>
Distribution: na
Organization: Grasshopper Group in San Francisco
Lines: 45

james@bigtex.uucp (James Van Artsdalen) wrote:
> I have my doubts.  PKXARC doesn't feel like ARC: it isn't as sluggish.

The ARC source code will show you why arc is so sluggish -- it does everything
in temp files.  It wasn't designed to be fast; probably it was designed
to run on even the most brain-damaged 64K IBM PC.

> The fact that Henderson is trying to profit from work others placed in the
> public domain does not lend him much credibility for pursuing PKXARC.

Thom Henderson does NOT profit from work that others placed in the public
domain (explained below) -- but what if he did?  The essense of public domain
is that anyone can do anything with it.  If you wrote some code and you didn't
want this to happen, better not make it PD.  I made my PD tar public domain
because I *want* people to use it commercially.  On the other hand, gnuucp
is GNU-copyrighted, because I care a lot more about its sources staying free
than I do about whether it is used commercially.  (Commercial use of GNU
software is permitted, but some businesses don't like giving out their
sources, so GNU copyright tends to cut the commercial potential.)

SEA does not charge for ARC; it is distributed as shareware.  If you want
a supported version, you can pay them for that -- but you are paying for
the support, which the authors of compress.c are definitely NOT providing
for him!

> PS. I do think anyone using Henderson's source for a unix ARC is standing on
>     quicksand.  Why anyone would want a unix ARC when tar & compress are
>     available is beyond me.-- 

I asked Thom about this while on the phone with him last week.  He said
that the difference between the PKARC situation and the Unix ARC situation
is that he has given us permission to distribute Unix ARC.  In fact, his
position on ports of ARC to other operating systems is that it's OK to do so
for noncommercial use as long as you upload a copy to his BBS.

Why you would want a Unix ARC is to create and extract ARC files for MSDOS
or other micros.  ARC sucks as a Unix medium -- it munges all the file
names, it's slow, etc.

Howard Chu has merged all known Unix ARC's and the result will be posted
to comp.sources.unix real soon now.
-- 
John Gilmore    {sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid,amdahl}!hoptoad!gnu    gnu@toad.com
      "And if there's danger don't you try to overlook it,
       Because you knew the job was dangerous when you took it"