zip (was: Re: Disk archival techniques)

[Randy McLaughlin]

From: "Vintage Computer Festival" <vcf at siconic.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 2:14 PM


> On Thu, 19 May 2005, Randy McLaughlin wrote:
>
>> This means that the only systems that can not extract the archival data
>> meant for classic computers are the classic computers themselves :-(.
>> Limiting the archives to the tools available for the machine it is meant 
>> for
>> would exclude the people that need it most, "Windoze only" users need to
>> have their hands held to get started.  I expect people with 20-30 years 
>> of
>> computer experience to be able to handle both classic & current tools.
>
> Why does this even need to be so?  Can't you offer a ZIP archive if that's
> what you insist on, but also just have a link to a directory right next to
> the ZIP download link that has the contents of the archive uncompressed?
> It seems this would solve everyone's problem, and also make the archive
> more stable for the longterm.
>
>> I have some archives that are archives of archives and intend to go back 
>> and
>> extract the original archives into un-packaged treed directories then
>> repackage into just a zip format so that future users don't have to 
>> figure
>> out the zip format to then have to figure out the myriad of CP/M
>> packaging/squeeze formats.
>
> Why bother packing it at all?  Just leave it in it's unadultered original
> format.  Bandwidth and disk space is cheap, and is only getting cheaper.
>
> -- 
>
> Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer 
> Festival
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> International Man of Intrigue and Danger 
> http://www.vintage.org
>
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Bandwidth and disk space is cheap if someone else is paying for it ;-)

Packaging archives is useful for so many reasons:

Effort of copying the data to the server and creating an organized 
structure, anyone that's been to my site knows how much effort I need to put 
into organizing it as is without adding more to do.

Downloading whole chunks rather than piecemeal helps to preserve the data.

No matter the cost packaged files take up 10% of the needs of unpackaged 
material.  I still use dial-up at my house so it would be impractical for me 
and others to handle the 1000% increase in upload/download times.


I do not have a perfect answer, I try to accommodate as many as is 
reasonably possible.


Randy
www.s100-manuals.com