zip (was: Re: Disk archival techniques)

Jim Leonard trixter at oldskool.org
Thu May 19 12:29:52 CDT 2005


On Wed, May 18, 2005 at 10:45:44PM -0500, Patrick Finnegan wrote:
> Randy McLaughlin declared on Wednesday 18 May 2005 10:26 pm:
> > Lately I've been using self-extracting zip files.  The reason is that
> > just by renaming the file from *.exe to *.zip most decompressors
> > handle it just fine and for 99% of the people it includes the software
> > to decompress it.
> 
> So, to fan the flames, what's wrong with tar?  

TAR doesn't deal gracefully with non-ASCII filename encodings (or
otherwise unconventional names, like spaces in the filename), or
files over a certain size.

There's nothing wrong with TAR as long as the above limitations
don't apply to what you're using it for.

My point at the beginning of the thread was that I don't think
archive programs should be damned simply because they run on a
certain platform.  That's extremely narrow thinking.  (I'm not
accusing you of that at all, just commenting on the thread responses
in general.)
-- 
Jim Leonard         http://www.oldskool.org/        Email: trixter at oldskool.org
Like PC games?  Help support the MobyGames database:  http://www.mobygames.com/
Or taste a slice of the demoscene at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/


More information about the cctalk mailing list