[mdlug] Archive formats (was "Linux Format" March issue available for download)

[Aaron Kulkis]

Jeff Hanson wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 2:12 PM, Aaron Kulkis <akulkis00 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> But what's the installed base?
>>
>> What percentage of users even know where to get 7-zip?
>>
>> I'm not saying that it's a bad format -- only that it's
>> not appropriate for the purpose for which the archives
>> in question are being distributed.
> 
> The .7z format is obviously not as popular as zip.  But zip is not a
> great standard either as there have been different incompatible
> implementations over the years (WinZip being responsible for a lot of
> them).  My favorite are the ones that store full paths with the
> filenames instead of a hierarchy so you end up with a single directory
> of 100+ character filenames with forward slashes.  On the warez scene
> I see mostly RAR and some bizarre combinations like RARs of zips.  ACE
> is very rare.  Microsoft's archive format of choice was CAB.
> 
> But ARC was the original compression format on DOS and Phil Katz
> cloned that first with PKARC before developing PKZip.  The popularity
> of ARC didn't keep it on top.  If you had a zip file that you didn't
> know how to open then you just asked someone for help.
> 
>> The goal is to make the data as easily available to as
>> many people as possible, NOT to optimize decompression
>> time.
>>
> 
> So do you mail DOC and XLS files to people?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
The army, unfortunately, is standardized on .doc and .xls :-(,
although there is a movement afoot in the Pentagon to change that.

Someone has raised the point that giving the old Heave Ho to
MS Office would save the DOD substantial amounts of money which
could be better used for R&D to protect service personnel from
mines, IED's and EFP's.

>                                         I don't.  If they need to
> open my files then they can download OOo for free.  I only send DOC
> and XLS when somebody is paying me to.  Clicking File > Save As and
> having to select a format is more effort than I feel is necessary and
> I expect to be compensated for it.


Hahahah.

> 
> Since 7-Zip is free and has better compression and standardization
> than any implementation of zip that I've tried then I don't have a
> problem telling people to download it either.
> 
> I'm not going to let the popularity of one "industry standard" limit
> my technological advancement using another.

I have no problem with the idea or even spreading the use of
the .7z format.  What I'm saying is this -- don't erect
obscure barriers (a not-widely-known format) to information
that you want disseminated as widely as possible -- that's
just plain counter-productive.

The intent is that these downloads will be copied to the
computers of many Windows users... probably many who are
in locked-down Windows environments, in which only the
"lowest common denominator" type standards are used, and
the individual user's ability to load something like 7zip
to read the archive just plain old can't be relied upon.

It's basic communication -- speak in a language that your
audience understands.

If instead, I wrote this posting in Russian, NOBODY on
this list would understand what I was trying to say.
Same thing goes for distributing a download in an archive
format which most people don't know how to open up because
the required software is not on their computer, they don't
know where to get the software, and even if they did, a
large number couldn't install the software anyways because
their workplace desktop is locked down hard because Windows
inherently vulnerable to malware otherwise.