RE: Discussion Topic: Cross-Platform File Compression...
Steve Hyman(steveh[at]practech.com)
Wed, 1 Jul 1998 20:06:55 -0400
-----Original Message-----
From: winmac@xerxes.frit.utexas.edu
[mailto:winmac@xerxes.frit.utexas.edu] On Behalf Of Rakesh Chabra
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 1998 5:56 PM
To: winmac@xerxes.frit.utexas.edu
Subject: Discussion Topic: Cross-Platform File Compression...
Hello,
I don't know if this is appropriate to ask or not, but I am in the
process
of building products for both Mac and Windows that do file compression,
segmentation, joining and expansion for easier cross-platform exchanging
of
files and wanted to know what you think are the biggest impediments to
accomplishing this task.
How important is it that the format used to compress include both Mac
file
and Windows file information? I know today that ZIP does not, so is
this
important?
It is important, although not a show stopper.
Is the amount of compression (smaller files) very important?
Yes.
What features would you want to have the most to facilitate your
cross-platform file exchanging needs?
What I would ideally like to see is a self extracting format that works
as an executable on both platforms and able to store on one platform. As
an example; We do cross platform software development and we need to
carry both PC and Mac versions of product upgrades when we go to client
sites. Currently the only feasible way to accomplish this is to have
..sit and .zip files on either a Windows NT laptop running PCMacLan or to
have our folks carry 2 laptops (bit of a hassle to emulate a pack mule).
If we had one program that created a self extracting archive in a cross
platform format (without stripping OS specific characteristics) that
could reside on either platform and execute on either platform, this
would be a little bit of heaven. It would also be quite unique.
Best Regards,
Steve
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