whirt@cup.portal.com (William Bill Hirt) (10/17/89)
In message <4353@sugar.hackercorp.com> karl@sugar.hackercorp.com (Karl Lehenbauer) writes: In article <23071@cup.portal.com> whirt@cup.portal.com (William Bill Hirt) writes: >>As a BBS sysop for the past year and a half, I certainly disagree with >>the above conclusion. This maybe true in the Usenet community, but in the >>BBS world, ARC is certainly the more common of the archivers used. I have >>over 1700 files on my board, and I'm sure the number of ARC files outnumber >>the ZOO's by at least 3 to 1. I would say most non_Usenet Amiga users >>know better how to use ARC than ZOO. >Karl writes: >Yes, but most of those files are for the PC, aren't they? The fact is that Sorry, that is incorrect. Apparently you didn't read the signature line. I do run my BBS on AT clone mainly because I've yet to see software on the Amiga as nicely featured and reliable as the BBS/mailer software I'm running on the clone. I'm hoping someday we'll reach that point on the Amiga. Look in the The Final List. You'll see it as listed as the best in Missouri and one of 6 BBS's in the U.S to receive the top ranking for files and message base. I have about 460 users, so I think I can make some assumptions based on their file history. And the ratio of ARC to other files now that I look at it is more like 4 to 1. >ARC is pretty brain-damaged on the Amiga, like filenames are restricted to >DOS-style, whatever that is, like eight characters plus an extension. It maybe, but it was the first one out. I remember when I got my Amiga three years ago, it was one of the first programs I downloaded with my modem because all Amiga programs available on BBS's and commerical services were using ARC. Zoo was no where to seen until about 6 months after that and Zoo had very slow acceptance in the commercial service/BBS community. >I have seen Amiga distributions with icky command files ARCed along with >the program's files to rename stuff back to the friendlier, longer, >Amiga-style names. (Sure, you could restrict filenames to match, but >those restriction suck, plus it only applies for the people who you can >convince to do that.) I certainly agree with this, but that doesn't contradict my point. Being active running a BBS, a user group, and calling other BBS's certainly tells me most files are in ARC format and speaking for my users, many more know how to use ARC than ZOO. A new user downloads the version of ARC (packed with Mark Riley's PAK) much sooner than he/she does ZOO (Also PAK'ed). One thing I notice is that most hacker/serious programs are packed with Zoo while most other stuff is packed with ARC. I think it reflects the background of the person doing the packing. >We are zooing all the Amiga stuff on our BBS. We like that because we can >unshar, uudecode, etc, on Unix, the zoo the stuff up on Unix, then Amiga >guys (for example) can download and unzoo. Although this could That's great, but remember most Amiga users don't know the first thing about UNIX and in turn USENET. They may see it vaguely referrred to in a magazine or on a BBS, but it has no real meaning to them. When I get a caller from Sweeden (and I do have several regulars from there), I can tell you their last concern when downloading file is not whether once they get it they can bounce it up their UNIX machine (if they have one). They want the file as small possible to minimize transmission time and their cost. The same goes for most other users. When I call another a BBS to exchange files, I certainly appreciate the file being as small as possible. And like most Amiga users, I'm not bouncing the file to a UNIX box, so if it's a ZIP, LHarc, ZOO, or ARC, I will use the approriate Amiga program to do it. So, I guess, if you want to bounce archives between several different machines, you are better off with ZOO. If you are concerned about file size, then LHarc or PKZIP (when it becomes available) will be the best choice. Bill whirt@cup.portal.com Sysop, Amiga Central BBS 150mb 1200/2400 (816) 587-5360 PCP: MOKCI Fidonet (1:280/304)
paquette@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Trevor Paquette) (10/18/89)
In article <23149@cup.portal.com>, whirt@cup.portal.com (William Bill Hirt) writes: ... stuff deleted ... > assumptions based on their file history. And the ratio of ARC to other > files now that I look at it is more like 4 to 1. That maybe true for YOUR system, BUT in and around the Calgary area Zoo files out number ALL others by about 10 to 1 (YES 10 to 1). These numbers are for Amiga BBSs ans Amiga sections on other BBSs. ... stuff deleted ... > One thing I notice is that most hacker/serious programs are packed with > Zoo while most other stuff is packed with ARC. I think it reflects the > background of the person doing the packing. I don't think you could be more wrong here. We use Zoo because of 4 reasons: 1) FASTER then ARC 2) 99% of the time it produces SMALLER archive files 3) There is no BRAINDAMAGED 14 character filename length limitation 4) Will do subdirectories and create them again when un-zooing ... stuff deleted ... > Bill > whirt@cup.portal.com > Sysop, Amiga Central BBS 150mb 1200/2400 (816) 587-5360 PCP: MOKCI > Fidonet (1:280/304) ________________________________/Luminous beings we are, not this crude matter Trevor Paquette ICBM:51'03"N/114'05"W|'She flies like darkness in the night, {ubc-cs,utai,alberta}!calgary!paquette| no mortal is safe within her sight. ' calgary!paquette@cs.ubc.ca | - ancient myth(?) of Esalon