Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!genrad!jpn
From: jpn@genrad.com (John P. Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: zoo'ed IBM-PC binaries?
Summary: Why make a change?
Message-ID: <17652@genrad.UUCP>
Date: 24 Feb 89 04:07:16 GMT
References: <77800005@sts> <5978@sdcsvax.UCSD.Edu> <13229@steinmetz.ge.com>
Sender: news@genrad.UUCP
Reply-To: jpn@teddy.UUCP (John P. Nelson)
Organization: GenRad, Inc., Concord, Mass.
Lines: 43

In article <13229@steinmetz.ge.com> davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes:
>I'm in favor of switching now. arc is not available on UNIX machines,

I really don't understand why people keep saying that.  The UNIX source
has been posted to usenet at least 3 times.  The latest version that
was posted is a port of ARC 5.21 with PKARC extensions (i.e.
squashing), and it compiles on both System V and Berkeley.  This
version was even blessed by Thom Henderson (UNIX users can run it
without oblication to SEA:  that is not SEA's primary market).  This
source has been available and stable for about a year.  What MORE
do you want?

>I expect arc v6.00 to be ported to UNIX soon (source is included) but
>that doesn't solve the basic problem.

I'm not sure what you consider the basic problem.  I don't think the
SEA copyright restrictions are any more severe than the ZOO copyright
restrictions.  Neither are public domain.

While Phil Katz created a much faster version of ARC, he got caught
with his hand in the cookie jar:  he used source code copyrighted by a
direct competitor.  I don't really see what all the fuss is about:  I
have no reason to think that Rahul would react differently if someone
pirated his code and tried to sell it.

>Now if zoo could only be posted on
>services like Compu$serve it could sweep the world.

This is my main reservation about zoo:  Rahul insists on adding
complicated restrictions to his program.  I have no particular love
for either SEA or PK, but right now, I don't see any overwhelming
reason to make a change.

I will concede that ZOO is a more portable program (as well as being a
more CAPABLE program), and probably deserves to be the new standard.
But what we REALLY need is a PUBLIC DOMAIN archive program with NO
RESTRICTIONS WHATSOEVER.  Until that arrives, I don't see any reason to
upset the applecart.

     john nelson

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