Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!n8emr!lwv
From: lwv@n8emr.UUCP (Larry W. Virden)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: GEnie Apple 2 / ShrinkIt
Message-ID: <810@n8emr.UUCP>
Date: 12 Feb 89 14:01:37 GMT
References: <8902091037.AA08703@crash.cts.com>
Reply-To: lwv@n8emr.UUCP (Larry W. Virden)
Organization: Ham BBS, 614-457-4227 (1200/2400/19.2 telebit,8N1)
Lines: 28


Compuserve will be the same way - you can submit the program to be available,
but you cannot submit new files in that format.

The problem is that 15% or more of the folks time is spent answering questions
on how to get a program to break up the files, how to get that program turned
into executable, how it works , etc.  By adding multiple file archive types,
all totally incompatible, it becomes a nightmare.  That is the primary reason
that I think that to get a new archiving program accepted one MUST be able
to handle the currently supported file formats.  There is no reason for a 
commerical service to use a new format, even if its better, if it cannot handle
the existing database.

Note that Don Elton had a pgm called ALU which handled BNY and LBR format
files.  It never really caught on - I dont think it handled the squeezed
formatted entries (it extracted them as .qq's I think didnt it don?).  Perhaps
that is the reason that one never took off... I dont really know.  I do
know that Shrinkit has a long row to hoe by going off in its own direction.

Its sort of like expecting a service to permit folks to upload .arc files with
squashed entries - there are few, if any, programs for an Apple II to extract
the pieces!

-- 
Larry W. Virden	 674 Falls Place, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068 (614) 864-8817
75046,606 (CIS) ; LVirden (ALPE) ; osu-cis!n8emr!lwv (UUCP) 
osu-cis!n8emr!lwv@TUT.CIS.OHIO-STATE.EDU (INTERNET)
The world's not inherited from our parents, but borrowed from our children.