Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!leah!bingvaxu!consp11
From: consp11@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Optimist Prime)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: LHARC & ZOO
Message-ID: <2898@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>
Date: 2 Feb 90 00:21:31 GMT
Reply-To: consp11@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Optimist Prime)
Organization: SUNY Binghamton, NY
Lines: 54

>1.  LHARC doesn't allow comments to be attached to individual files in\
an
>archive (at least as far as I can see) like ZOO does.  The comments\
allow me
>to attach reminders to files rather than to the whole archive which\
means that
>I don't have to create a lot of little archives for different sets of\
files
>when one file will suffice.

True.  LHARC doesn't support this.  But why would you want to put a
whole bunch of unrelated files into the same archive in the first
place?  If the files aren't related in some way, they belong in
different archives.  Otheriwise it's like having a hard drive with no
partitions and a whole bunch of subdirectories called "MISC."

>2.  More importantly, I'm currently working on Unix and VMS machines\
as well
>as my Amiga at home.  ZOO has a wider range of platforms supported\
and, so, I
>can easily ship ZOO files of software back and forth amongst the\
machines (VMS
>is a little tricky, but not that bad ;-).
>
>So, my hope is that software put up on comp.(sources|binaries).amiga\
(as well
>as elsewhere) continues to be put up in some sort of zoo format at\
least until
>a new archiver comes along that meets the following requirements (in\
>decreasing order of importance):
>
>1. More supported operating systems.
>2. Better compression algorithms.
>3. More flexibility in its options.

Yes, ZOO is more widely supported than LHARC is.  But how do you
expect more platforms to pick up on it if the one it was originally
created on won't even deal with it?  I, for one, use LHARC for
everything.  If I come across a ZOO or ARC or PAK or ZIP or any other
kind of archived file, I quickly de-archive it and re-archive it with
LHARC for uploading and downloading around.  ZOO/ARC/PAK don't
compress well, ZIP is graphics-only (if it was graphics and CLI, I'd
flip for it).

So what if LHARC is slow?  On a multitasking machine, just type
RUN LHARC <...> and go on with your next piece of work.  That's what
multitasking is all about, isn't it?

+-------///--------------------| BRETT KESSLER |--------------------\\\-------+
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