Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!haven!umbc3!umbc5.umbc.edu!cs480125
From: cs480125@umbc5.umbc.edu (Peter Johansson)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: which archiver/compresser and encoder/decoder to use?
Summary: What about something entirely different?
Keywords: archivers, compression, encoding
Message-ID: <2790@umbc3.UMBC.EDU>
Date: 15 Feb 90 06:08:02 GMT
References: <1513@krafla.rhi.hi.is> <3418@plains.UUCP> <1990Feb14.154555.2435@mks.com>
Sender: newspost@umbc3.UMBC.EDU
Reply-To: cs480125@umbc5.umbc.edu.UUCP (Peter Johansson)
Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Lines: 29

In article <1990Feb14.154555.2435@mks.com> andy@mks.com (Andy Toy) writes:
>What will we use?  We have used or are using arc, zoo and
>uuencode/uudecode.  Should we change to something new or avoid the
>hassle of yet another change?  If we are going to change (or not) then
>let's see what we have to work with.  Please make comments and
>additions about the following lists.  
[[[ lists deleted ]]]
>Andy Toy, Mortice Kern Systems Inc.,       Internet: andy@mks.com

I would like to make an addition to the current choices, if for no
other reason than the sake of completeness.  Does there exist a single
program to turn a collection of files directly into a {UU|XX}ish
format?  Or put another way, an archiver that saves files in text
format.  This reduces the amount of work required to re-create the
origonal fileset, which, at least in theory, could reduce some of the
everpresent confusion to new c.b.i.p. readers.

If such a program does not already exist (which I doubt) the library
of public, portable, source code for compression and binary to text
conversion is large enough such that this is not a large task.  To be
sure, not nearly as large a task as to convince the c.b.i.p. audience
to make use of it.

Of course, the whole point is moot until the files start flowing again -
But wait, what was that?  Did I just see a little trickle???

--
Peter Johansson                             cs480125@umbc5.umbc.edu
I suppose if I was a witty person I would say something witty here.