Date:	Wed, 5 Aug 92 11:56:09 EDT
From:	DJ Delorie <dj AT ctron DOT com>
To:	wcwelch AT waynar DOT lcec DOT lockheed DOT com
Cc:	djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
Subject:	Status of list

>Just a few questions about your 'unpacking program'

>	1) Will it be compatible with any other standard formats?

Probably not.  I'd like to add support for comments, descriptions, and
empty directories into the packed file.

>	2) You mentioned only source/executable for 'unpacking';
>		what about utilities (w/ source) for 'packing'?

One program does all - pack, list, unpack.

>	3) Will these sources be portable?  I currently use the
>		portable zip/unzip on VAX/VMS, SCO-Xenix, SCO-UNIX/ODT,
>		RS6000, SUN workstations and MS-DOS machines.  The
>		convienience of binary compatability of 'packed' files
>		is something that I would loathe to give up.

Probably not - I take advantage of DOS services to speed up the
processing.  The format would be well documented, so writing an
alternative program will be no big deal.

>	4) 'GO-32 compatable' ?   Surely you do not mean that it would
>		REQUIRE GO-32?  Please correct me if I am wrong, but 
>		wouldn't this imply the need for a DPMI/VCPI server?
>		(I am VERY new to DOS-extender programming/DJGPP so
>		please pardon any really dumb questions)

Go32 does NOT require VCPI, and doesn't even support DPMI.

>	5) Other than another format, what would your new program
>		bring to the world?

(1) will always unpack files properly (pkunzip defaults wrong)

(2) archives will include comments and documentation about the archive
itself, which is printed when you list the contents of the archive.

(3) empty directories can be stored (zip cannot)

(4) It can be distributed commercially as well as FTP (unzip cannot).

(5) It will be able to read multiple-floppy archives, as well as unix
dd format floppies (zip cannot)

(6) Sources are available and freely modifiable and redistributable.
(probably would be GPL'd)

I only plan on using this for djgpp distributions, and all
distributions will come with a .EXE for it.  This will prevent folks
from asking me where to get an unzip program.

The requirements for a viable alternative are as follows:

(1) must be publicly available
(2) must default to unpacking the directory structure
(3) must be able to ship with commercial distributions of djgpp
(4) should support comments about the *archive* (available when listing)
(5) should support mutli-floppy unpacking
(6) should provide sources (GPL is best).

DJ
dj AT ctron DOT com
Life is a banana.

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