Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!ames!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!itsgw!steinmetz!uunet!dalcs!dalcsug!euloth From: euloth@dalcsug.UUCP (George Seto) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit Subject: Re: AlfCrunch archiving utility Summary: Compatibility with ARC and other systems Message-ID: <509@dalcsug.UUCP> Date: 10 Jul 88 02:07:21 GMT References: <7012@cup.portal.com> Organization: Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S., Canada Lines: 52 In article <7012@cup.portal.com>, fireplace@cup.portal.com writes: > The following is an ARC'd file containing AlfUnCrunch (DZ), AlfCrunch (LZ) > and documentation. Are you sick of the horrible speed and bugs of ARC? > AlfCrunch is a lightning fast machine language compression/archive utility > that incorporates the Lempel-Ziv compression algorithm. It is much more > efficient than ARC and the speed is stunning. It is clearly the sucessor > to ARC on the Atari 8-bit series. ENJOY! > > --Ron fireplace@cup.portal.com "I'm not an actor, > sun!portal!cup.portal.com!fireplace but I play one on television." We have tried this and it is as it says VERY fast and much more compressed. Here are the results we found : First is some timing in minutes and secs: ARC ALFCRUNCH TIME TO DECOMPRESS SCREEN ON 5'50" 1'53" SCREEN OFF 4'30" 1'50" TIME TO COMPRESS SCREEN ON 4'49" 1'47" SCREEN OFF 3'50" 1'35" FILESIZE in Sectors ACTUAL 231 231 COMPRESSED 143 114 ============================= ARC12.COM 93 ACRX12.COM 88 DZ.COM 27 LZ.COM 24 After this was tested on the 8 bit, the docs were separated and ALF'd into its' own file. It was successfully dearc'd with the ST's UNARC.TTP which is compatible with the latest compression routines found in the PKARC method found on the IBM and the B version of ARC 5.21 for the ST and IBM. I haven't tried the ARC 5.21B on my ST but will do so in the next day or so. Maybe we will have something else to relate. For now it seems possible that the 8 bit Atari computers now have a FAST compression method which is still compatible with files available on the other Atari and the IBM machines. The above results were tested by Bruce Fortier and myself of the NSACUG which is the Nova Scotia Atari Computer Users group. Bruce did the tests on his 8 bit and I tested the ALF'd file on my 520ST system. -- ******************************************************************************* * euloth@dalcsug.uucp || Disclaimer: All opinions are my own unless other- * * /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ || wise noted. * ****AKA: Atari Nut*************************************************************