Paul Marwick wrote in a message to Jack Stein:

 PM> Replying to a message of Jack Stein to Paul Marwick:

 JS> I reckon thats a point for OS2 Commander, considering it *does* manage
 JS> files and their FILES.BBS entries on all but filenames over 13
 JS> characters, and no other file manager even does that, including FC/2.

 PM> Not true, I'm afraid. InspectA handles FILES.BBS entries,
 PM> and will add such entries to files with long names...

I thought InspectA did not handle long filenames at all, nor large partitions? 
At least that's what Roy was saying a while back, and he uses InspectA,
although IIRC it is the DOS version he uses.

 >>> and FILES.BBS entries, failure to read most self-extracting 
 >>> archives, 

 JS> It reads ZIP, LHZ and ARJ self-extractors, just as it says in the
 JS> docs.   That covers ALL the self-extractors I have here other than
 JS> those that are archieved compression programs themselves, and I
 JS> generally convert them to ZIP format anyway, as EVERYONE that uses
 JS> archives should have zip archive capability.  

 PM> If it did acctually do as advertised (ie, read ZIP, LZH and
 PM> ARJ self-extractors) I wouldn't have much to complain about.
 PM> However, in my experience, it handles only around 50% of
 PM> such files. A poor record, given its claims. 

I'll concede that point since it doesn't work on all the different brands of
zip archivers.  Stating it doesn't work on 50% of the files is only because
50% of your files use a ZIP archiver that is not supported.  I'm not sure
which it supports, PKZIP I know it supports, if not the newer PKZIP/2.

 PM> FC/2 works _much_ better in this area. Not to mention having the
 PM> ability to read RAR slef-extractors as well.

OS2C works on all the RAR self-extracters I have here, RAR206P.EXE
RAR250P.EXE

 JS> Too bad, I would rather see self extracting apps banned, completely
 JS> removed from the archive capabilities of all compression programs,
 JS> used only in the distribution of the archiver itself.  IBM is just
 JS> one of dumb ass developers that is so stupid, it archives an archive
 JS> in a self-extracting archive.  Sometimes I think the entire computing
 JS> world is controlled air-heads.  The internet sure highlights the sad
 JS> state of computing.

 PM> There are a number of quite legitimate uses for
 PM> self-extracting archives. 

Name one legitimate use for placing a zip file inside a self-extracting zip
file?  I've seen them on IBM's sites.  

 PM> The only problem is that you need to be able to trust the 
 PM> source. 

Something no one should do unless they are the source.

 PM> It should require little thought to see why companies like IBM 
 PM> (who are only one of many who distribute things in 
 PM> self-extracting archives) do so. It means that they can 
 PM> distrubte code in a compreessed bundle _without_ having to 
 PM> worry about whether the end-user has the necessary extractor, 
 PM> can obtain it if they don't alredy have it, or knows how to use 
 PM> it. 

Yeah, but that is weak.  People have to get all sorts of programs and install
them themselves, no reason at all they couldn't do the same with an archive
program.

 PM> :( Well, I certainly intend to register only programs which
 PM> I have some hope of seeing continue under develpment. I'm
 PM> tired of spending money (and effort) on software only to
 PM> find that ithas ben abandoned by the author. 

What I don't like most is paying for an app, then having it upgraded shortly
after so you must up-grade again.  I think 90% of my software has been
abandoned by the authors, including OS/2 itself.

                                              Jack 
--- timEd/2-B11
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