Mail Archives: djgpp/1996/11/10/16:54:18
> On Sat, 9 Nov 1996, Malcolm Taylor wrote:
> > Anyway if the point is to reduce the size of the archives, then why
> > not go for a better archiver? The compression algorithm in zip is
> > around 3-4 years old technologically speaking, and there are many far
> > better archivers available today that dispense the need for tarring
>
> IMHO, better compression ratios is not always good enough reason to switch
> to another compressor. Do we really think everybody out there (GNU sites,
> SimTel sites) are so stupid in that they continue using this ``old''
> compression technology? Do savings in disk storage (which is about the
The major point here is savings in download times. I agree disk space
is cheap.
> cheapest asset nowadays) indeed justify turning our back on compatibility?
> I'm not sure.
Yup, compatibility is the one major thing going for pkzip. Because of
info-zip, zip format files have become the defacto standard. I'm just
suggesting that it is about time this standard got revised :)
> And btw, at least in my book, availability of free source code to the
> (un)compressors we use is also very important. (How else would I be able
> to make UnZip LFN-aware in less than a day?) AFAIK, most ``modern''
> compressors don't comply to this requirement.
I agree, esp. with regard to a project like DJGPP (eg for inclusion in
the installer). That is why I offered to write one. If there is
interest in it I would be able to write and release source code
(probably under GPL) and hence fulfill this requirement.
Malcolm
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