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From: NU013809@NDSUVM1.BITNET (Greg Wettstein)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: SQUASHED!
Message-ID: <231NU013809@NDSUVM1>
Date: Sat, 4-Jul-87 12:23:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: NDSUVM1.231NU013809
Posted: Sat Jul  4 12:23:23 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Jul-87 01:01:17 EDT
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Distribution: world
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computer Network, Fargo, ND
Lines: 66
DISCLAIMER: Author bears full responsibility for contents of this article.


I have been following the controversy regarding utilitzation of Phil Katz's
program for some time now and frankly I am somewhat concerned.  This reply
will probably entitle me to a great number of flames but I would like to come
out in favor of Phil and his new programs.  I have had the opportunity to
visit with him via Loren Jones' Bulletin Board here in Fargo and I find Phil
to be a very reasonable person, who if you questioned him closely, would
probably consider releasing the PK series of programs one of the biggest
mistakes of his career.
     
Phil worked very hard to come up with a series of improvements to what is
probably the most universally used program by the PC and BBS community.  He
not only provided a tremendous speed improvement but also added squashing
which I find to provide a very significant compression factor in my large
FORTRAN and C program source files.  I have yet to see anyone who has really
come out and congratulated him on a very fine accomplishment.  He has been
maligned, rumors have been spread about him and his program has been the
subject of what I consider almost malicious treatment.  People have gone so
far as to suggest that his program poses a threat to hard disk data structures
which it has never been proven to do.
     
The incorporation of SQUASHING seems to be the primary objection which people
have to the PK series of archival programs.  I think Phil knew this when he
wrote PK..  and very reasonably offered command level control and environmental
control switches to disable this if people did not like to use it.  People in
general seem to have ignored this and continually complain about the presence
of SQUASHING when it can be very conveniently disabled.  Even if a SQUASHED
file is received by someone, considering how widespread Phil's programs are, I
can hardly believe that anyone with enough knowledge to download a file would
not have a copy of PKXARC around to unpack the file.  Since Phil's program
handles the standard SEA arc format quite well I just keep his program around
and that pretty well solves all the problems.  If the file has been SQUASHED
there is no problem, if not it gets unpacked as well only about 6x faster.
     
I guess my biggest concern over this whole controversy is what it says about
the micro-computer hobby/industry as a whole.  I see the future for good public
domain/shareware software growing dim in the light of this debate.  Everyone
seems to concede that he wrote a fine program but there doesn't seem to be any
reward for doing this, only condemnation and second guessing.  If the
microcomputer industry as a whole was this afraid of change we would still be
dosing DOS 1.0 with no pathnames, 8 sector floppies, primitive software and
little or no graphics (EGA, CGA) capabilities.
produced when people strive to produce a better product.  Our industry is going
Progress in any field is only achieved when individuals or concerns attempt
to improve upon the performance of existing techniques or products.  Our
industry and the tremendous change it has produced in society as a whole is
the result of people striving to improve upon the standard.  If this industry
gets the reputation of stagnation or unwillingness to change due to sheer
stubborness or jealousy we will no longer be able to advance as we have in the
last seven years.  I actively seek out new software and technology and I feel
that since my job exists because of these advances my continued success will
be due to my ability to learn new things and take advantage of the edge that
these techniques give me in terms of increased and enhanced productivity.
     
I would like to conclude by congratulating Phil on a very fine accomplishment.
I also hope that he continues to improve on an already fine product.
     
     
                                       As always,
                                       G.W. Wettstein
     
     
The usual disclaimers apply.  These are my opinions and in no way reflect the
opinions of the North Dakota State University Quantum Chemistry Research
Group.
     
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