[comp.sys.ibm.pc] What ARC does when it sees a squashed file

jjboritz@watdragon.UUCP (07/08/87)

When ARC comes across a file in an archive that is listed as being squashed
it does not simply issue an error message such as: Unknown compression format

Instead it tells you that there is an error in the archive, and suggests
that you don't know how to use the ARC program, and should go read the 
manual.

I thought that for a quasi-commercial piece of software, the error message
was improper and insulting.  


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paul@cgh.UUCP (Paul Homchick) (07/12/87)

/* From <3047@watdragon.UUCP> (Jim Boritz) */
>When ARC comes across a file in an archive that is listed as being squashed
>it does not simply issue an error message such as: [...] it tells you that
>there is an error in the archive [...] I thought that for a quasi-commercial
>piece of software, the error message was improper and insulting.  

Oh, I don't know about that.  For those of you who have forgotten, PKARC is
a incompatible clone of SEA ARC.  And they are both somewhat "commercial"
programs competing with each other.  SEA ARC is the original.  Why should it
support Squashing?  If VP-Planner added a new feature to it's spreadsheet,
do you think that LOTUS would support it?  Would you expect them to?

The problem here is not SEA ARC, it is PKARC creating ".ARC" files which
are incompatible with the ARC standard.  Yes, PKARC/XARC are fast
programs, and yes, SQUASHING is somewhat more efficient, but using the
".ARC" extension on such files is somewhat misleading!
-- 
Paul Homchick            {seismo | allegra | ihnp4 | rutgers} !cbmvax!cgh!paul
Chimitt Gilman Homchick, Inc.; One Radnor Station, Suite 300; Radnor, PA 19087