LAUL@UREGINA1.BITNET (12/24/87)
Ever since I bought a modem, my use of Amy has gone up about 4x what it was. I have become somewhat of a BBS geek, and I estimate my A1000 spends 80% of its time uploading/downloading , as well as compressing/decompressing files. There is 1 thing I like about Zoo, I don't have to worry about the file name lenghts. However, very few BBS users use Zoo, and it would NOT be easy to get them to change. The other, and most important factor, is that Zoo will not decompress any /.ARC/ files that I have. Meanwhile, ARC will decompress MOST Zoo files, that I have tried (well, it does miss a few blocks). So, there no question of which one I keep in my crowded c-directory of my WB floppy. Dennis Robert Gorrie. """Break a Deal, Spin the Wheel... """
bryce@hoser.berkeley.edu (Bryce Nesbitt) (12/25/87)
I am another of those people that would like to see Zoo die. I don't want to
offend the developers of Zoo, but it is hard not to in this case. Arc is a
wonderful, accepted standard. Not unlike IFF ILBM graphic files.
Zoo would be forgotten history, of course, if the Amiga version of arc
supported two things:
1> Backward compatible long file names. This is very simple. If the name
is longer than the 12 characters allowed, save two copies of the name. One
unique "throw-away" name for compatability, and one nice long name for sane
systems.
Old implementations of arc need never know about the "secret" long
file name.
2> Recursive directory support.
Documentation on the arc storage format is available (I'll post what I have
if there is interest). Sadly, source code does not seem to have been
released. Has anyone talked to Raymond Brand (The person who ported arc
to the Amiga) about these issues?
I (and most of the rest of the programmers in the universe) would be more
than willing to add in these features to arc, if given source access.
|\ /| . Ack! (NAK, SOH, EOT)
{o O} . bryce@hoser.berkeley.EDU -or- ucbvax!hoser!bryce (or try "cogsci")
(")
U "Your theory is crazy... but not crazy enought to be true." -Niels Bohr