Date   : Sat, 17 Sep 1988 17:54:00 MDT
From   : Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL>
Subject: Info on new public domain archiving system

Captured from the Exec-PC Business Board  414/964-5160

   conf: FILE COMPRESSION FORUM  #1612  08-31-88  20:06
   from: PHIL KATZ
subject: PLANS

Well, I think it's a little to early for an official product
announcement or anything, but here's what is currently in
the works:

Caveat:
  This is not an official press release.  This is what
  is currently planned for the new data compression
  software forthcoming from PKWARE.  The information
  provided here is subject to change without notice.

o  The file format for the new files will be made public.
   Other software can read or write these files without
   restriction.  Additionally, PUBLIC DOMAIN source code
   written in portable C language may be released to
   demonstrate how an applications program can read the
   information contained in a file created with the new
   software.

o  The software will be concurrently released for MS-DOS,
   VAX/VMS, and Amiga.  (This implies that long filenames
   such as on an Amiga or Unix will be fully supported.)
   OS/2, Unix, and mainframe development is currently being
   investigated.

o  The (MS-DOS) software will offer both a menu-driven full
   screen interface and a command line interface.

o  The software will provide significantly better compression
   than the current software, and also offer vastly improved
   reliability for recovering data from damaged and corrupted
   files.

o  The software will be able to process and traverse
   subdirectories.  The (MS-DOS) software will be able to span
   multiple disks with compressed file collections.