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From: caf@omen.UUCP (Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX)
Newsgroups: net.sources.d
Subject: Re: MS-DOS ARC ported to Unix ?
Message-ID: 
Date: Mon, 4-Aug-86 08:17:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: omen.382
Posted: Mon Aug  4 08:17:05 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 5-Aug-86 22:45:08 EDT
References: 
Reply-To: caf@omen.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE)
Organization: Omen Technology, Portland
Lines: 63
Keywords: ARC SEA ms-dos archive

In article  emv@umix.UUCP (Edward Vielmetti) writes:
:I have heard via private correspondence with several people that there
:are a number of people working to get the ms-dos ARC program (from
:Thom Henderson & System Enhancement Associates) working under Unix.
:There's someone here fighting his way through it without too much luck.
:
:If someone has completed this port, please I ask you to post your
:work to net.sources.

I have a version which appears to operate under SCO SYS V Xenix.  It
appears to be file compatible with the DOS version.  It will not compile
under most flavors of Unix because of certain packed structures
(uses a special C compiler option to pack structures).  I'd be rather
surprised if files written on a 68000 could be read by a VAX or 8086. 

Furthermore, the author expressly forbids distrubution of modified
versions of the program. 

Furthermore, ARC is an unstable program, and files produced by newer
versions cannot be recovered by previous versions.  This instability
has spawned at least one Trojan Horse version.  PC-DOS brain damage
permeates the program.  The program is not public domain, the author
insists on payments from those using it (but makes no mention of sharing
these proceeds with the authors of COMPRESS and SQ/USQ, who did most of
the work). 

I think it better "we" develop a more appropriate program along the
following lines:


	"PARC" Portable Compressed Archiver
		Ideas

1. PARC suitable for a wide variety of operating systems, including
Unix, Berkeley Unix, and Macintosh : "no" restriction on file name size

2. PARC Archives writable on any system and readable on any system
regardless of byte order (at least on systems with 8 bit bytes). 

3. PARC Able to generate archives without temporary files - needed to
archive large file systems

4. PARC Able to deal with multi volume archives

5. All - ASCII option, no funny characters in archive, especially if the
files are all source files.  (For posting stuff to the net ...)

6. Choice of LZW or SQ compression, or no compression

7. Stable compression alogrithym, ability to use ARC-A's assembly
language routines.  Version 1.1 of PARC must be able to dearchive all
future archives. 

8. To support (1), no stricture on modifying the program for operating
system X, provided the resultant program meets compatibility criteria. 

9. Shareware OK, but no "mandatory" licensing `ala ARC. 


   Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX  ...!tektronix!reed!omen!caf   CIS:70715,131
   Author of Professional-YAM communications Tools for PCDOS and Unix
 Omen Technology Inc     17505-V NW Sauvie Island Road Portland OR 97231
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