Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!ucsd!ames!amdahl!pacbell!att!ihlpl!db21
From: db21@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Beyerl)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: SIMTEL20 to ban ARC files
Summary: Program should not only be faster and provide smaller files
	 but should also be easy to use and remember.
Message-ID: <6630@ihlpl.ATT.COM>
Date: 9 Sep 88 12:20:18 GMT
References: <KPETERSEN.12428752438.BABYL@SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL> <NELSON.88Sep7224416@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 27

In article <NELSON.88Sep7224416@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>, nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) writes:
> 
> So what is wrong with zoo?  looz is Public Domain, the real thing.  I think
> that going with yet another commercial product is just asking for trouble.

	Before we adopt some new standard for creating 'archive'
type files, I think we need to consider more than just 'is it 
faster?' and 'does it produce more compact files?'.  I believe we 
also need to consider how easy the program is to use.  Along with 
that is how easy is its name(s) to remember.  With ARC and PKARC 
there are one, maybe two, easily remembered names.  For ZOO there 
are a number of non-relating names which the user has to be 
familiar with.  I have found this somewhat confusing and as a 
result have developed the following memory aide to keep tract of 
all the pieces: 

	"Arch tool [arctool] used by dogs [arff] while 
    drinking [fiz, booz] at the zoo [zoo] and saying [sez]
    loose [looz] rhyme, the alphabet [atoz], and other
    stuff [stuff]."

	I am sorting this out, but I still don't feel comfortable
in adopting as our standard a program that has so many pieces and
non-relating names.  Perhaps Rahul, as he improves the program,
could pull this altogether under one, integrated package.

					Dave Beyerl
					ihnp4!ihlpl!db21