| From: | Martin Baute |
| Date: | 6 Sep 2000 at 17:20:11 |
| Subject: | Re: AMIOPEN: AmiPak |
Hello Barry
On 06-Sep-00, you wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> How does everyone feels about "on-the-fly" decompression?
Hmmm... while it�s nice not to have to unpack a file before using it,
I see two drawbacks:
- loss of system performance, especially on slow machines;
- I pass on a file (like xy.gif.amp) without thinking about the .amp,
and the guy next door cannot read it - just like .doc files are today,
the other way round.
Drive space has become so ridiciously cheap in recent years, keeping
stuff compressed makes little sense to me. It�s another story with PDAs
and other systems where non-volatile storage space is more expensive,
but those systems usually don�t have the CPU power to blow either.
It�s a nice feature, but it can get into the way pretty quick. Also makes
comparing files by-size near to impossible.
I�ve read some comments about compression tools packing dirs into
archives and vice versa - this is _not_ enough if you do more serious
archiving work. I want to pick a few files here, a few files there, and
combine them into a single archive. Too much transparency can hurt
me here, as much as too much power-user-option-lists-too-long-to-
memorize can hurt Mr. Low End.
IMHO, of course.
Regards
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