Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:17927 comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d:659
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!ucbvax!pasteur!cory.Berkeley.EDU!browning
From: browning@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Craig Browning)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: PK361.EXE
Message-ID: <4936@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 10 Aug 88 01:52:55 GMT
References:  <11792@steinmetz.ge.com>
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: browning@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Craig Browning)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 53

In article <11792@steinmetz.ge.com> davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes:
>In article  msmith@topaz.rutgers.edu (Mark Robert Smith) writes:
>| I urge you all to do the same.  I also urge Rahul Dhesi to switch to
>| Phil's new standard as soon as it is available.  I also urge SIMTEL20
>| to convert its archives to the new standard.  We need to show SEA that
>| their kind of competition through litigation is unacceptable, and that
>| competition through improvement is the only acceptable form of
>| competition.

>  I don't think that anyone want to switch until/unless the UNIX source
>is available for the new compressor.

You're in the minority, as I will point out again.

>I will probably switch all my
>postings to zoo format as soon as the new version comes over the net for
>readers to use, because I'm tired of having to move stuff to a PC to
>read the docs to see if I should bother to move them to a PC at all.

And I hope the moderator repaks (spelling intentional) them to the standard
format in use, ARC or whatever. Otherwise we'll have to keep several de-arcers
around to use postings.

>BTW: I think that the settlement reflects the legal issues perfectly.
>Both zoo and dwc invented new file formats, help menus, directory
>listings, and commands. PKware "borrowed" most of the above, with very
>slight changes.

What a weird opinion: Speed is the difference. What's wrong with compatibility?
Imcompatibility because word processors use their own format is causing huge
problems, even for me. Files have to be saved in ASCII, losing control codes,
then loaded and modified in a new word processor, and/or be professionally
converted... ARC and PKARC's compatibility helped make them, especially PKARC,
popular, yet you praise diversity of formats. Besides, Katz is now going to
release a new format, so you should be happy; why don't I see you praising it,
saying you'll convert to it? Maybe it will do tree structures, something I
haven't seen a practical use for yet but a few seem to strongly desire.

People have been saying that Katz deserved this, but I think the only reason
SEA 'had' to do this is selfish anti-consumer 'save the bad product through
legislation' attitudes. People wouldn't use PKARC if it wasn't so fast, an
SEA should improve their product. How can the format be proprietary when it's
basically Huffman? Yes, the ARC extension was apparently protected (more
craziness, how about ".DOC"? ".WP"? etc.? ) but I don't see any problem with
re-writing code to get efficient storage, and what will happen to Vernon
Buerg's programs that use ARC format?
Most of us use clones instead of IBM's that are compatible and much more
of a copy than Katz, but how many of us want to pay the extra to not infringe
IBM's copyright?

>	bill davidsen		(wedu@ge-crd.arpa)

Craig