Does anyone use ar(1) anymore?

[Marty Sasaki]

Now that I've gotten into the software distribution biz (GNU EMACS) I've
learned all about tar and shar formats. Why doesn't anyone use ar
anymore? It does pretty much what you want and for bundling files
together doesn't offer any less functionality than tar or shar. Am I
missing something?
-- 
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  Marty Sasaki				net:   sasaki at harvard.{arpa,uucp}
  Havard University Science Center	phone: 617-495-1270
  One Oxford Street
  Cambridge, MA 02138