Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!
From: lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: PkaWare/PkaZip
Message-ID: <1207@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca>
Date: 6 Mar 90 12:37:03 GMT
Lines: 38
Return-Path: <lpami!lphillips>
To: van-bc!rnews

In <14146@cbnewsc.ATT.COM>, dalka@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (kenneth.j.dalka) writes:
>I happen to like to new pkazip. I find it amazing that someone
>who has lived in the MSDOS world for so long could write something
>that has such an amiga-like interface on the first try. I do agree
>that it needs a CLI interface but I'm willing to do without it given
>what the tool can do. I have complaints about a lot of tools and
>if the worst thing I can think of about pkazip is that it has a
>user-friendly graphical interface while lacking an "experts" CLI
>interface, then pkazip is far above the compitetion.

It isn't just that you can't use it from a CLI.  It's that it cannot be invoked
as part of a script, or as part of a pipe, or with redirection.  The people who
do a lot of shuffling of data enable you to have the programs you see on
comp.sources.amiga or comp.binaries.amiga, or on the various commercial
services, need the ability to automate much of the process.  The inability to
run it from a script means it's far down the list in the competition.
Additionally, much of the manipulation of data is done on Unix machines, and
last I heard, there was no ZIP utility available for Unix.  Combine these two
'features', and you end up with something that is right out of the competition,
and into the category of nuisance, because there are people who like it and
will use it.

>BTW, things I have noticed is that is compresses better than arc
>but is usually %1 to %3 worse than lharc. However it is much faster
>than lharc.

Counting the time to muck about with it?

-larry

--
Gallium Arsenide is the technology of the future;
  always has been, always will be.
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|   //   Larry Phillips                                                 |
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