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From: davidr@hplsla.HP.COM (   David M. Reed)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: standards is standards Re: SQUASHED!
Message-ID: <5280010@hplsla.HP.COM>
Date: Tue, 7-Jul-87 16:50:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: hplsla.5280010
Posted: Tue Jul  7 16:50:23 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 10-Jul-87 07:26:27 EDT
References: <2290@whuts.UUCP>
Organization: HP Lake Stevens, WA
Lines: 23


Perhaps I am missing  some points also.  I really do not  perceive  complaints
against PK as a program, only the choice for archive filename extension, which
is creating some confusion.  With SEA's ARChive program using the extension of
.ARC, and the ZOO archive  program using the extension of .ZOO (as was pointed
out to me this  morning),  there is no question as to what kind of file it is,
and how to use  (manipulate)  it.  And if I come  across a file  with the .ARC
extension,  and my version  of ARC can not  handle it, then I would  determine
that it was assembled by a newer version of ARC that I did not have (but would
then seek out).  I would never have  guessed that it was done by a  completely
different program (i.e.  PK), and so would be continually  frustrated,  upset,
and unsuccessful in my attempts to extract  something from the .ARC file which
was NOT an ARC file.

To put it simply, PK should be using, by default, a different  extension  than
.ARC if the file can NOT be manipulated  by the most recent version of ARC.  I
enjoy PK,  particularly  for its speed (the  savings in file space over ARC is
often  inconsequential to me), and would consider encouraging others to obtain
a copy and use it, EXCEPT for the extension factor.  Like commented elsewhere,
when  one has a file  with  the  .ARC  extension,  one  expects  to be able to
manipulate it on ANY system  (UN*X, DOS, etc.)  that can (compile and) run the
ARC  program,  and  there  is now a  confusion  factor  created  by use of one
extension to possibly mean more than one thing.