Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!ukma!psuvm.bitnet!cunyvm!ndsuvm1.bitnet!nu013809 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 References: 642@cgh.UUCP 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. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------