Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!sharkey!math.lsa.umich.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!cs122aw
From: cs122aw@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Scott Alfter)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: NuPak 2.0
Message-ID: <1990Mar12.202529.12084@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 12 Mar 90 20:25:29 GMT
References: <25fb4fd0.5f7@petunia.CalPoly.EDU> <104*delaneyg@wnre.aecl.ca> <14458@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 43

In article <14458@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> kadickey@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Kent Andrew Dickey) writes:
>This NuPak thing looks like a really bad deal...

Indeed it does.  It doesn't even support the classic IIs!  ProDOS 8 may not
know what to do with resource forks and such, but I think the ability to read
StuffIt and BinHex on the II on the II could be useful; sometimes I port stuff
between the IIe in my dorm room and the SE/30s downstairs.  Andy Nicholas, on
the other hand, has busted his ass to make ShrinkIt usable on as little as a
64K II Plus!  I really appreciate the efforts of people who like to keep the
older machines plugging along.  (As for me, I have a 128K enhanced IIe.)

>Andy has been working very hard on ShrinkIt 3.0, and GS/ShrinkIt....
>this competition might be enough to make Andy stop his work.  It's a bad
>feeling in business when a competitor beats you out with a product, but
>this is even worse since Andy has been doing it for FREE!

Indeed it may very well have that effect.  Why would I write a program if I
knew I could get it from someone else?  ShrinkIt is copyrighted, right?  If it
is ever discovered that NuPak uses any ShrinkIt code, I hope Andy registered
his ShrinkIt copyright and can raise the money for a lawyer to take the NuPak
folks to court.  (Yeah, right--pay for a lawyer on the pittance your folks
send from home! :-) )

>I just hope this NuPak doesn't steal any of Andy's code...that would be
>really lame.

'Nuff said.

One last note.  There's a UNIX clone out called GNU.  (BTW, GNU is one of those
three-letter acronyms they speak of in rec.humor--it means "GNU's Not UNIX" :-)
Anyway, whenever one of the guys responsible for GNU comes on the net, his .sig
always says "Support Free Software."  I think we should all do that.  If you
get hold of a copy of NuPak, don't send in your shareware fee.  If you haven't
gotten a copy, don't bother.  I'm sure someone else (you listening, Andy?) is
bright enough to give us BinHex and StuffIt some other way, should there be a
need for it.  (You can always live without, of course, and send uncompressed
files!)

Scott Alfter-------------------------------------------------------------------
Internet: cs122aw@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu    _/_  Apple II: the power to be your best!
          alfter@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu/ v \
          saa33413@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (    (              A keyboard--how quaint!
  Bitnet: free0066@uiucvmd.bitnet    \_^_/                     --M. Scott, STIV