Article View: comp.sys.mac.apps
Article #7892Re: PROPOSAL - Archive Standard
From: Bill Johnston
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 1991 05:39
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 1991 05:39
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2801 bytes
In article <6008@crystal9.UUCP>, derosa@motcid.UUCP (John DeRosa) writes... >I came to the conclusion that there should be a standard >for how items should be archived prior to being placed >in the Sumex archives. Yes, indeed. When this was last debated, StuffIt 1.5.1 was chosen because the format is OPEN. Many folks in the world-wide net.community rely on unix machines for which "sit" and "unsit" utilities are available as freeware. Running "mcvert" and "unsit" on one's unix host allows the user to download binaries, which are significantly smaller than the corresponding .hqx files (thus faster to download). These open format utilities are available in "shar.Z" format in the /mac/unix-utilities directory of rascal.ics.utexas.edu [128.83.138.20]. Because the format is open, the files can be accessed and used by non-Mac people; for example, the PC-clone folks are now downloading sound files from the Mac archives! These folks know about "unsit", but using Compact Pro, DiskDoubler, Diamond, and other "Mac-only" formats gets in the way of a good thing -- the beginnings of genuine platform-independence for computer data. This problem even affects Mac users running A/UX; some of the "new, fast" compression tools aren't 32-bit clean. (The new StuffIt's are ...). Yes, several of the new utilities run faster and compress files more efficiently (on the Macintosh only) than do any members of the "StuffIt" family. But using them puts a wall up around the Mac community that we don't need. A similar situation exists in the PC camp. Good archive formats have been introduced like .zip and .arc, supported by powerful shareware applications and rudimentary freeware dearchivers. Nevertheless, the comp.binaries.ibm.pc group is sticking with the less efficient '.zoo' format because EVERBODY can use it. Why take a step in the wrong direction? The future of computing can't POSSIBLY lie in a host of incompatible and proprietary archival formats -- until the Deluxe's, the Compact Pro's, and the DiskDoublers of the world realize that the whole world doesn't have a Mac (or the time to keep up with forty million formats), let's stick with something that WORKS for everybody. Bill (johnston@oscar.ccm.udel.edu)
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!emory!gatech!udel!oscar.ccm.udel.edu!johnston From: johnston@oscar.ccm.udel.edu (Bill Johnston) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps,comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: PROPOSAL - Archive Standard Message-ID: <48251@nigel.ee.udel.edu> Date: 20 Mar 91 05:39:53 GMT References: <6008@crystal9.UUCP> Sender: usenet@ee.udel.edu Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.apps Lines: 42 Nntp-Posting-Host: oscar.ccm.udel.edu