[comp.sys.amiga] Compress in 512K

91_bickingd@gar.union.edu (Bicking, David) (06/01/90)

     
>91_bickingd@gar.union.edu (Bicking, David) writes:
>> stuff I wrote deleted.
     
>>	Does anyone out there have a Compress utility that will work in UNDER
>>one meg????  Perhaps Xanth should start storing their files in a less
>>proprietary format (yeah, right :).
     
>compress is hardly proprietary - the sources for it are readily available,
>and it can be found on all kinds of systems.  Perhaps xanth has a copy.
>It also runs just fine on a 512K Amiga, let alone a 1M machine.  Of course,
>you'd better not be doing anything ELSE on that 512K machine, but it WILL
>work.

	Ok. The only version of Compress for the Amiga I have found needs MORE
than one meg, and the docs say, that's "just the way it is".  It is a direct
port of the Unix version.  So if anyone has the BINARY of one that works under
1meg, PLEASE send it.  When I said proprietary, I meant that it is generally
only on unix systems.  It is not used on other systems that I have seen except
to extract files, other systems use PAK, ZIP, ZOO, or PKAX.

>--
>Mike Farren 				     farren@well.sf.ca.us

--
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"I don't want to start any Blasphemous Rumors, but I think that God's got a
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Dave Bicking         	       Single Tasking????? Just say NO!!!!
Union College Box 152          91_bickingd@union.bitnet              //
Schenectady, NY 12308          91_bickingd@gar.union.edu	   \X/ Amiga 
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tadguy@abcfd01.larc.nasa.gov (Tad Guy) (06/01/90)

In article <20725@snow-white.udel.EDU> 91_bickingd@gar.union.edu (Bicking, David) writes:
> >the sources for it are readily available, and it can be found on
> >all kinds of systems.  Perhaps xanth has a copy. 

anonymous ftp xanth.cs.odu.edu:/pub/compress.tar

> >It also runs just fine on a 512K Amiga, let alone a 1M machine.  Of
> >course, you'd better not be doing anything ELSE on that 512K
> >machine, but it WILL work.

Depends on the number of bits used in compression.  Back before I got
more memory, I compiled compress on my 512k A1000 and had to use (I
think) 12 bit compression to make it work -- anything larger required
more memory than I had.  The default from most vendor supplied
versions is 16 bits...

> The only version of Compress for the Amiga I have found needs MORE
> than one meg, and the docs say, that's "just the way it is".  

It's probably compiled for more bits.  You could try the -b option to
specify less bits, but the files you uncompress have to have been
generated with the same (or less) number of bits; even then it may not
help since it was compiled for larger sizes...

There have been some compress varients that can uncompress 16 bit
files without having the extra memory (I don't know the availability
of these, though).

> When I said proprietary, I meant that it is generally only on unix systems. 

This isn't a problem.  The code ports well...  

> It is not used on other systems that I have seen except to
> extract files, other systems use PAK, ZIP, ZOO, or PKAX.

All these that you list are archivers, which happen to also compress.
Compress isn't an archiver -- it only compresses data...

	...tad