PKARC

[Chris Cullen]

In article <7186 at tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>, mdf at tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Mark D. Freeman) writes:
> In <4671 at ozdaltx.UUCP> root at ozdaltx.UUCP (Scotty) writes:
> >If you are using PKARC, you might give some serious
> >consideration to going back to the Standard ARC.  I talked
> >with Thom Henderson today of S E A who authored ARC and they
> >are getting complaints about PKARC not being system
> >compatable (backwards) with ARC.  
> 
> Only if you use one of their new compression modes.  You can turn this
> mode off.  This incompatibility can be turned on and off at will.

Then will people posting stuff to the net PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ***NOT***
use the new compression modes.  I don't have the new PKARC, and haven't
been able to find it on local BBS's (if some kind soul would mail it
to me, I'd be grateful).  More important, tho, the files can't be
worked with on the unix version of arc which otherwise works on
everything, and is wonderful for testing the integrity of what's been
uudecoded before downloading to a PC.
(Being able to test file integrity is absolutely THE reason why
uuencoded ARC'd files are the way to send binaries over the net.  I
often get 'short file' warnings from uudecode for perfect files, and
occasionally have gotten garbage from ok uudecodes.  Compression
efficiency is moot if you've gotten garbage and have to start over,
assuming you managed to find out you got garbage in the first place.)

-- 
Chris Cullen                UUCP: {ucbvax!allegra,decvax}!encore!vaxine!cpc
Automatix, Inc.             Phone: 617-667-7900 x2066
1000 Technology Park Dr.
Billerica, Mass. 01821