Message-ID:	<32851D86.B36@ananke.amu.edu.pl>
Date:	Sun, 10 Nov 1996 01:10:46 +0100
From:	Mark Habersack <grendel AT ananke DOT amu DOT edu DOT pl>
Reply-To:	grendel AT ananke DOT amu DOT edu DOT pl
Organization:	Home, sweet home
MIME-Version:	1.0
To:	malcolm AT manawatu DOT gen DOT nz
CC:	"John M. Aldrich" <fighteer AT cs DOT com>, djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: Why not to use 'tar' before packing DJGPP?
References:	<199611090739 DOT UAA04820 AT papaioea DOT manawatu DOT gen DOT nz>

Malcolm Taylor wrote:

> size using RKIVE or ACB. This is an extreme case though as RKIVE
> requires 8Mb and ACB 16Mb to work well, so aren't really suited to
> the 'everyone can use' category, but there are other more generally
> usable compressors (eg the new JAR from the maker of ARJ).
I keep my DJGPP distribution in RAR 2.0 format and it's about 35%
smaller. RKIVE is excellent but unfortunately slow (I imagin it uses
some sophisticated compression algorithm, maybe fractal one?) and I
haven't seen the two others you mentioned. But I agree, PKZIP's
algorithms are quite dinosaur today...


> You could put the compression straight into the installer itself, and
> hence enable the use of tar or something else without anyone having
> to be too troubled by it.
In fact, the installer encapsulates the ZIP Deflate/Inflate algorithm
and it would be fairly easy to add the tar support, as well as GZIP
(well, GZIP is there for free, the installer uses zlib).

> One of the biggest problems with this is that it would require a
> complete switch to the new archive format, or doubling up of archives
> (old and new format) which would probably not sit well with DJ or the
> Simtel.Net maintainers.
That's right. Such a switch would take some time. Besides, I think DJ is
compressing DJGPP on Unix, and AFAIK there's no other common compressor
than ZIP or TAR on DOS and Unixes.

-- 
**************************************************************************
You tell me I'm drunk then you sit back and smug a while convinced that
you're right, that you're still in command of your senses. I laugh at
your superior attitude, your insincere platitudes will make me throw up.
The sooner you realise I'm perfectly happy if I'm left to decide the
company I choose.
********************** http://ananke.amu.edu.pl/~grendel
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