Date   : Tue, 10 Nov 1987 10:59:00 MST
From   : Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA>
Subject: ARC maker for CP/M now available from SIMTEL20

Be careful with the new ARC maker for CP/M.  There are some problems
that will have to ironed out in the next revision.  The following
message is from RCP/M Royal Oak (313) 759-6569.

--cut-here--CPMARC.BUG--cut-here--
Date: 9-Nov-87
From: Lee Rimar
To:   All
Re:   CP/M ARK program

   I feel like a kid who got exactly the toy he wanted for Christmas --
but then found out it didn't work.

   After waiting over a year for a CP/M archive program, it's finally
here.  But it's slow and has some dangerous bugs.

   There are two versions:  ARCS does file compression by Squeezing,
ARCC does it by crunching.  Each has it's own problems.

   ARCS bombs out if you try to put more than 64 files into an archive.
It WILL close the archive correctly, but if you specified a file list
or wild cards totally more than 64 files, it just aborts after the the
64th is arc'd.  And it IS slow:  I was trying to archive the initial
program load for my RAMdisk, about 700K in 65 files.  Took OVER AN HOUR
to get the 64th file (RAMdisk to floppy).  Then ten very noisy minutes
of disk error retry, trying to figure out where to put the 65th file.
Finally it aborted.

   ARCC has a different problem.  The docs say it needs a TPA of AT LEAST
60K.  I have 56K, and it works if you try to archive small files, and
specify a small file list.  BUT if you run out of memory, it DOES NOT
exit gracefully -- it goes off into never-never land, and sometimes
will trash your disk directory en route.

    ARCC is even slower than ARCS -- a single 12K file took about 5
minutes to archive (RAMdisk to RAMdisk) on my 4Mhz Kaypro.  So even if
you have the memory to run it, you might not have the time.

    If you need 'em, they're here -- but be careful . . .