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From: brianc@cognos.uucp ( Brian Campbell )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: SQUASHED!
Message-ID: <1069@cognos.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Jul-87 11:55:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: cognos.1069
Posted: Tue Jul  7 11:55:52 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Jul-87 02:10:34 EDT
References: <642@cgh.UUCP> <10710@clyde.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: brianc@cognos.UUCP (Brian Campbell)
Organization: Cognos Inc., Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 49

In article <10710@clyde.ATT.COM> feg@clyde.ATT.COM (Forrest Gehrke) writes:
! 
! Why all this refusal to accept improvements and innovation? Are
! we turning into a bunch of Luddites?  I think Phil Katz is doing
! a fantastic job.  He has included several means for turning off
! squashing if not desired.  But even C standards have been
! subject to change--hopefully for improvements.  Sure, there
! will be some confusion initially, but these things can be
! accommodated eventually.  Many BBS are adopting PKARC with
! squashing as their standard method of archiving because it
! reduces file size and for its speed.
! 
! Come on guys, get with it!!
! 
! Forrest Gehrke


     Improvement and innovation is great!
     The space and time savings from using PKARC have made it *the* file
archiving program of choice on all Ottawa area Fido's and PC Boards (and, no
doubt, on almost every board where the sysop is not paid for his time or
equipment).  I saved in excess of 2 megabytes of disk storage when I converted
all my archives using PKARC (due mostly to squashing although crunching is
sometimes better than SEA's).
     The point here, is that while squashing may be incompatible, it is saving
a *LOT* of disk space on a *LOT* of BBS's, not to mention slightly decreased
download (and upload) times.
     The increased speed of PKARC is a blessing, but one I could live without
for the sake of compatibility -- if that were the only issue.  As it is, the
speed is an added bonus.
     Some boards have adopted a 'PKA' extension to make it crystal clear that
PKXARC is needed to extract the files in a particular archive (though this is
really only necessary if PKARC squashes one or more of the files).  What more
could anyone want?
     The only problem with all of this innovation is that it hasn't yet
filtered down (up?) to usenet.  I have been running ARC on the Sun where I
read the news for quite awhile now.  But recently, some of the ARC'd files
coming over the net have had squashed files in them to which ARC complains
that "I need a newer version of ARC".  No problem, I can just transfer them to
my PC and unarc them there.  Not an incredible problem, but a time waster.
I'd like to be able to extract the files on the Sun, or Vax, or DG, or
whatever machine I happen to be on.  So ... 
     Where is the source for this "squashing" algorithm.  Does anyone have an
"unsquasher" written in C?  Has anyone modified the existing ARC source to
handle squashing?  Help!
-- 
Brian Campbell		uucp: decvax!utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!brianc
Cognos Incorporated	mail: 3755 Riverside Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1G 3N3
(613) 738-1440		fido: sysop@163/8