Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!mcdphx!hrc!force!covertr
From: covertr@force.UUCP (Richard E. Covert)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: lharc/arc/zoo/compress
Summary: Not Needed
Keywords: archives
Message-ID: <47fdf52f.14a1f@force.UUCP>
Date: 12 Jan 90 15:12:12 GMT
References: <47f0d326.81da@digital.sps.mot.com> <21701@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <21723@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Organization: gte
Lines: 53

In article <21723@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>, rs0@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Bob Slaughter) writes:
> In article <21701@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> cr1@beach.cis.ufl.edu 
> (Chris Roth) writes:
> >What we have here is a lot of different archive methods being used.
> >It would be nice if we could use one standard, and I would vote for
> >Zoo.  
> 
> 
> I would _really love to see a super-smart program that can use any of
> these formats, and allow you to unarchive _anything_.  Then the choice
> of archive format would become less of a problem in the present and
> the future.
> 
> --
> *     Bob Slaughter                           *  This space for rent       *


Actually, a SuperSmart Do It All Archiver isn't needed. A friend of mine named
Gerry Szekely of Detroit Michigan wrote a ShareWare program called "ARCIT SHELL"
which handles ARC, LHARC, ZOO, ZIP all transparently from the same dialogue box.
You select a button for the desired ARCing format and then ARCIT SHELL uses
other buttons to build a command line to the desired program. I use it all the
time.

And then there is the FAMOUS Charles Johnson's ARC SHELL program which is great
for ARC and LHARC files.

And there is a new LZH dearchiver called UNLZH12 which is super fast for
extracting files.

So, as long as there are excellent Shells (GEM-based shells I mean) I don't
see why we need a overly complex do it all archiver. I would rather see a
sharp programmer spend time on improving the existing LZH program. That would
be of more immediate benefit to more users than a do it all program.

Another point is that a DO IT ALL program would freeze the archivers into a
static state. I don't think that the ARC and LZH and ZOO and ZIP updates would
as easily incorporated into a DO IT ALL than just a shell. A shell can normally
use the newer archiver without change, witness the fact that ARC SHELL 2.0 worked
fine with ARC 6.02, but w/o the new features of ARC 6.02. Then Charles Johnson
updated ARC SHELL to ARC SHELL 2.1b and now it works fine with ARC 6.02. Pretty
simple and quick.

So, for all of the above reasons I don't see a burning need for a DO IT ALL archviver.
With the two fine shells mentioned above we can work with any archiver with ease now!!



-- 
 Richard E. Covert, Lead Engineer of Software Tools Group
 AG Communications Systems, Phoenix AZ   (602) - 581-4652
 TCP/IP: covertr@gtephx
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