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)