djb@wjh12.harvard.edu (David J. Birnbaum) (10/18/88)
After playing briefly with the new GSARC Files Archive Utility by Nogate Consulting (available at SIMTEL as GSARC10.EXE.1) I noticed a couple of things: 1. GSARC is about half as fast as PK, but much faster than SEA. Except for very heavy use, the difference in speed is not significant. 2. GSARC introduces crushing, a method of compression that is tighter than squashing. A command line switch can disable crushing or squashing, producing PK or SEA compatible files. But: when I used the switch to produce a PK compatible file (squashing about twenty text files of varying sizes into a single archive) the archive was larger than one squashed by PKPAK. Thus, if you use crushing you do get a tighter archive, but if you want a PK compatible archive you get better results with PK. 3. Both PK and GSARC can produce self-extracting archives, but the overhead for GSARC is slightly larger. 4. This may be a RTFM problem (although I did RTFM), but I could find no way to extract a file from an archive to the screen. I keep the dozens of stupid little readme files that come with every software package in a single large archive. When I have to consult one the simplest course is to extract it directly to the screen. Can this be done with GSARC? 5. One can not help but notice that GSARC not only contains 'ARC' in its name but creates archive files with the extension .ARC. Does anyone know whether an agreement has been reached with SEA? If not, could NoGate run into the same problems as PK? If so, is part of the GSARC registration going to SEA as a licensing fee? --David Birnbaum ====================================================================== David J. Birnbaum djb@wjh12.harvard.edu [Internet] 11 Adams Terrace djb@harvunxw.bitnet [Bitnet] Cambridge, MA 02128 djb@wjh12.uucp [UUCP] BITNET WARNING: The only valid bitnet address is djb@harvunxw.bitnet. Bitnet mail sent to me at any other domain may not be delivered. Please do not trust your mailer to supply the correct address. ======================================================================
dennis@raphel.UUCP (Dennis Vogel) (10/19/88)
In article <315@wjh12.harvard.edu>, djb@wjh12.harvard.edu (David J. Birnbaum) writes: > After playing briefly with the new GSARC Files Archive Utility by Nogate > Consulting (available at SIMTEL as GSARC10.EXE.1) I noticed a couple of > things: > Is someone planning on posting GSARC to comp.binaries.ibm.pc? Those of us who do not have access to SIMTEL would appreciate it. Dennis R. Vogel AT&T Bell Laboratories Somerset, NJ
linhart@topaz.rutgers.edu (Mike Threepoint) (10/24/88)
For those of you who scoured SIMTEL looking for GSARC10.EXE.1 (like me), to find it not there, will be interested to know I found it as PAK10.EXE.1, whose principal difference seems to be that every occurrence of "GSARC" (except one) has been replaced by "PAK". It is dated 4 days later than GSARC. It functions exactly the same, and supports the new "crushing" compression method. (Patterns! You know, I thought this might have been a joke when I first read it...)