Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!dasys1!tneff From: tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff) Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Re: Multiple step archiving (was: Re: SIMTEL20 to ban ARC files) Keywords: lzw, atob/btoa, 7 bit pure Message-ID: <6703@dasys1.UUCP> Date: 28 Sep 88 15:51:54 GMT References: <2594@csccat.UUCP> <424@pigs.UUCP> <6583@dasys1.UUCP> <432@pigs.UUCP> Reply-To: tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff) Organization: Independent Users Guild Lines: 30 In article <432@pigs.UUCP> haugj@pigs.UUCP (John F. Haugh II) writes: >In article <6583@dasys1.UUCP> tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff) writes: >> There were two headaches. First, >>people kept LBR'ing *first* and then squeezing (yielding an LQR file), >>which is the wrong way to do it for two well-defined reasons[1]. > >there are people who actually believe that stupid people should not >be using computers. if you can't get people to Read And Follow Label >Instructions(tm), it's not my fault ... This might be OK if we weren't discussing what, if anything, we want to use in place of ARC and/or ZOO. Whatever their legal merits, those programs do at least solve the eternal hassle of "how do I compress and bundle correctly?". Lots of people you would not consider stupid have run into that one. If we adopt some other method which sacrifices the ease-of-use gains ARC and ZOO brought, we make a devil's bargain. It's not as though some front-end couldn't be written that enforced a standard sequence of operations even if the components were bundled separately a la compress(1) etc. I'm just saying that it's pretty important that we try to present a fairly seamless, stupid-proof user interface if we want to make folks happy with a substitute packager. Nevertheless I would prefer to see someone give Rahul a steak dinner or whatever it takes to get him to remove the ugly new restrictions on ZOO and open it up for standardization on Usenet and elsewhere. -- Tom Neff UUCP: ...!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!tneff "None of your toys CIS: 76556,2536 MCI: TNEFF will function..." GEnie: TOMNEFF BIX: t.neff (no kidding)