a compress/uncompress for PC-DOS???

[Dave Tweten]

From: Erik Bailey <ejb at think.com>

	Well, ARC is GREAT (having 3 different algorithms), but what *I* would
	really like to have (and probably Jay, too), is a compress-COMPATIBLE
	program on the PC.

Several months ago, I contributed exactly that to the Info-IBMPC source library
at USC-ISIB.ARPA.  It is a port of UNIX Compress to MS-DOS, using Microsoft C
version 3.0.  Though I had to make several changes (casts to account for FAR
pointers and a signed 6-bit machine, and exploitation of a large array kludge),
all non-portable changes were surrounded by #ifdef's so the source can still be
used to generate versions for UNIX.

It can be compiled to generate either of two versions.

One understands up to 16-bit codes, and is therefore compatible with all
UNIX-generated files.  Unfortunately, it requires almost 500K of available
memory to run, and its ".exe" file won't fit on a 360K floppy without first
being run through Microsoft's ".exe" cruncher.

At the expense of being limited to 12-bit codes, one can compile it to fit into
a strictly small model.  Due to the nuisance value of having to specify "-b 12"
to the UNIX Compress, I expanded my H/Z-151's memory and now use the 500K
version exclusively.

Incidently, it also converts (or optionally doesn't convert) files between UNIX
text form (NL line separators) and MS-DOS text form (CR LF line separators).
The conversion is done at compression/decompression time.

I also sent the code back to the co-founder of Compress (vax135!petsd!joe), but
did not contribute this MS-DOS source to UNIX-Sources, for the obvous reason.
If you can't get the code from either of the places I have sent it, please
suggest another ARPA/MIL-net accessible place I can send it, and I'll be happy
to do so.