Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!ucsd!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hpda!hpwala!johns
From: johns@hpwala.HP.COM (John Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Phil Katz (PKARC author) sued by SEA (ARC author)
Keywords: katz,sea,pkarc,pkxarc,arc,suit
Message-ID: <475@hpwala.HP.COM>
Date: 20 Jun 88 15:32:55 GMT
References: <8084@brl-smoke.ARPA> <1271@percival.UUCP>
Reply-To: johns@hpwala.UUCP (John Silva)
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Waltham, Mass
Lines: 38

In article <1271@percival.UUCP> jamesd@percival.UUCP (James Deibele) writes:
]I hope SEA wins, solely because of PKARC 3.5.  Phil Katz came out with a 

  Whomever wins, we all lose [again] . :-(

]program that defaults to a non-compatible format which has caused more time
]and trouble to be expended than the slight gain in space could ever repay.
]You now download files with an .ARC format that ARC can't handle, which is
]totally ridiculous.  If he'd used a .PKA extension, or released the source
]code, or made the default to be compatible (you have to explicitly instruct
]PKARC to make normal ARC files --- that are not only compatible with SEA's
]program, but also ones running on CP/M, UNIX, Apple, Macintosh, and other
]machines (none of which understand PKARC's "ARC")), he might have reason to
]expect sympathy.  

 This is the ***MAIN*** reason I avoid using PK*ARC, because of this
 [unforgivible] incompatibility.  Who cares about 0.02% of file space saved !!
 I want a file format that I can unARC under UN*X, MS-DOS, AmigaDOS, ....
 (ARC files are not just used for distributing PC software !!)


 As far as speed goes ...  I can afford to wait an extra minute to produce a
 compatible SEA ARC file.  What good is it if I produce a PK*ARC file that
 someone who has ARC on a UN*X system (or Amiga, or Apple, or ...) cann't read?
 (Who know what other incompatibilities PK has 'built-in' to it.)

] 
]SEA released source, cited people whose code helped ARC, and encouraged 
]people to use it on other machines.  ARC swept SQUEEZE and LIBRARY programs
]off the face of the MS-DOS earth because people now had one standard, rather
]than 15 different versions of SQ or LU.  There are at least two different

 Ditto !!  SEA helped produce a standarized file archiving format
 that we have all benefitted from.


 John Silva
 "put your favorite disclaimer here" [so you don't get sued !!]  1/2 :-)