---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | DON'T USE PKARC 2.0 -- an alert for all users of ARC | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | December 25th, 1986 | | | | | | Written by Eric Newhouse | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- First of all, this article assumes a working knowledge of the ARC.EXE program - how it works and what it does. If you are unfamiliar with the ARC concept, read the many help files available on the subject before proceeding further. Phil Katz has been programming ARC utilities for quite a while now. Until recently, there has been every reason to use his utilities; they are faster, more efficient, and more compact than the original ARC.EXE program from SEA associates. PKARC, which allows users to add files to an ARChive speedily, is one of these improvements to the ARC concept that Phil deserves praise for. However, in his latest version of the program, version 2.0, of PKARC, Phil adds a 'Squash' method of compression which is incompatible with the original ARC.EXE released by SEA associates. Most users of ARC download the SEA version of ARC before Phil Katz's version. These users will soon discover that if they try to extract an ARCHIVE created by version 2.0 of PKARC using SEA's ARC.EXE, ARC will bomb to DOS. In other words, since PKARC.COM is incompatible with ARC.EXE, Phil Katz is deviating from the ARC standard, and in doing so he will confuse countless BBS users. There is already another ARChive program that does not follow the ARC standard named ZOO131.ARC (Zoo version 1.31). We CANNOT have new standards every which way we turn! With all these new ARChiving programs that deviate from the ARC standard, it will be impossible to tell how to extract an .ARC file. Should we use ZOO, PKXARC (Phil Katz's companion extract file for PKARC), or the original ARC.EXE file? There will be no way to tell, for each of these programs creates ARChives with the same '.ARC' file extension. What can we do about this problem? For starters, all BBS users and SysOp's must unite and form one definate ARC standard. Until we can form that one standard, all users should stick with the current SEA ARC.EXE standard, and NOT use PKARC version 2.0 or ZOO version 1.31. Recently Bob Mahony of the Exec-PC BBS proposed a solution to this ever growing problem of the ARC standard: all BBS's in the country could switch to a new standard at one specific date. Bob's idea is good, but I doubt that he, or anyone else, has the power to get EVERY BBS system to switch at one time. If you have a better idea, please make it known! The BBS world is in dire need of one official ARC standard. -Eric Newhouse If you disagree with this article, you are welcome to state why. You can reach me with a rebuttal at any of the following places (in order of most frequented): * The Crest RBBS (213-471-2518) (2400/1200) (80 MB) [ This is my board ] * The West LA PC-STORE (213-559-6954) (2400/1200/300) (50 MB) * VOR bbs (415-994-2944) (2400/1200/300) (20 MB) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of file.