Message-Id: <m0yqjn2-000S47C@inti.gov.ar>
Comments: Authenticated sender is <salvador AT natacha DOT inti DOT gov DOT ar>
From: "Salvador Eduardo Tropea (SET)" <salvador AT inti DOT gov DOT ar>
Organization: INTI
To: "Arthur" <arfa AT clara DOT net>, djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 16:46:53 +0000
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Subject: Re: This is not a problem but...
In-reply-to: <000701bda384$63ac78e0$364e08c3@arthur>
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"Arthur" <arfa AT clara DOT net> wrote:

> But it doesn't compress any executable, does it? Only COFF exes. I want one
> that'll shrink any and all programs.

Laszlo (the author of DJP) is working on UPX, it supports: DOS EXEs, DOS COMs, 
DJGPP EXEs, Watcom EXEs and will support Win32 EXEs too.
 
> I've just thought of another advantage of these programs. As the disc file
> is reduced, it not only saves space but time to load.

No the decompression is slower than current disks using cache.

> As RAM (especially EDO
> or SDRAM) is *much* faster than the hard disc, the time taken to load the
> compressed file and then uncompress it is actually less than the time taken
> to load the uncompressed prog. This is assuming that the difference in sizes
> is significant.

Yes but the cache will kill it. Programs are loaded from the cache in the case of 
compilers, linkers, etc. The decompression is fast but takes some time.
 
> There was a TSR on the ST which would uncompress any compressed file (not
> just programs) as it loaded. It wasn't 100% reliable but it meant that I
> could halve the size of my font collection.

Well you have doublespace, SuperStore and Stacker for PCs. Additionally 
somebody created a virus that compressed files. That's an example of
useful virus ;-).

SET 
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Salvador Eduardo Tropea (SET). (Electronics Engineer)
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