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-
- {center}
- {subhead} Interview with Jim Cooper{def}{p}
- Article by {link http://www.amigaworld.com}http://www.amigaworld.com{end}
- {left}
- {p} {p}
-
- Jim = Jim Cooper{p}
- AW = AmigaWorld
- {p} {p}
- And now the article follows...
- {p} {p}
- AW:
- {p} {p}
- LhA is back!
- {p} {p}
- The probably most widespread utility ever coded for the Amiga is back!
- {p} {p}
- With his LhA archiving utility, Stefan Boberg created an executable that
- shaped the Amiga community like no other program - of course with the
- exception of Exec itself. :-)
- {p} {p}
- Over 90% of Amiga-related archives are stored in LhA format.In a
- computing world where ZIP files and their variations are almost
- omnipresent - like PKZip on Windows plattforms, or GNU-zipped tape
- archives (.tgz) in Unix enviroments - the LhA format is considered
- "exotic" by most people outside the Amiga community.
- {p} {p}
- But for many years now, LhA offered performance, reliability,
- versatility, and widespread acceptance, something various "simple" Unix
- ports of ZIP utilities failed to achieve. The freely distributable
- evaluation version (v1.38) of this shareware product resides on almost
- every Amiga hard disk out there still spinning, and many people
- registered themselves to enjoy the enhanced capabilities of the full
- version (v1.50).
- {p} {p}
- However, Stefan Boberg dropped development of LhA long ago - no updates,
- no keyfiles. Several other utilities tried to replace LhA as the
- standard archiving utility: LZX showed much promise, until its author,
- Jonathan Forbes, also cancelled its further development.
- {p} {p}
- For a long time, all we could do was using the evaluation version of
- LhA. While a generic keyfile of LZX was released some time ago, the LZX
- algorithm was proprietary to the Amiga, and not as widely accepted as
- LhA - last but not least due to some bugs left in the (final) 1.21
- version of LZX.
- {p} {p}
- So, the main archive utility of the Amiga was orphaned. Until now.
- {p} {p}
- Jim Cooper finally persuaded Stefan Boberg to pass on his source code
- for LhA. after some clean-ups, LhA is back in its new 1.94 version - and
- distributed as freeware!
- {p} {p}
- I talked to Jim Cooper, about history and future of LhA. Here are his
- answers.
- {p} {p}
- AW: First, thank you for joining this interview. It is great to see
- that LhA is finally "back in the community". Just why did Stefan stop
- sending out keyfiles at all?
- {p} {p}
- JIM: Truthfully, I don't know. I never asked him.
- I do know that he got very busy as the project leader on new game code
- (for other platforms), and that took almost all his time.
- {p} {p}
- AW: What is his attitude towards LhA today?
- {p} {p}
- JIM: The last time I traded EMail with him, he seemed glad that someone
- was willing to continue with it.
- {p} {p}
- AW: What has changed from version 1.50 to 1.94?
- {p} {p}
- JIM: At least one third of the code that Stefan send me was in 68000
- assembler, with some 68030 optimizations. I ported the code to 100% C,
- for portability. (And some bugfixes, of course.)
- {p} {p}
- AW: Will you provide further support for LhA if bugs are found, or to
- further improve LhA's abilities?
- {p} {p}
- JIM: Yes, most certainly. In fact, I tried to upload 1.95, 1.96, and
- 1.97 to Aminet within just a few days of 1.94. That's when I found out
- that they didn't accept uploads of newer versions of the same file
- within 10 days of each other. I waited a while, then tried to upload
- 1.98, but by that time, Aminet was down (a little before Christmas 1998,
- remember?), and I simply never tried again since.
- {p} {p}
- The version of LhA currently in Beta test (a few revisions beyond 1.98
- :-) is smaller, faster, and generates smaller archives than ever before.
- I also have someone working on it with me, now: David Tritscher, who has
- uploaded several utilities to Aminet in the past, such as "unlzx,"
- "undms," and others. He lives in Australia, and is a real whiz at the
- low level compression code.
- {p} {p}
- The latest Beta also supports the -lh6- compression format (compresses
- as well as gzip, in most cases!) that the PC and UNIX versions have
- supported for a while, now, and I am searching for info on -lh7-.
- {p} {p}
- We also have a few things on the "TODO" list that could make it compress
- as well as LZX (or better), while still being compatible with current
- LhA. :-)
- {p} {p}
- AW: Will you provide optimised versions for the 68k CPU line in the
- future, or even (drool) a PPC version?
- {p} {p}
- JIM: Since the code is now 100% C, I could provide versions optimised
- for every 68k CPU. However, it really doesn't make much difference to
- the speed of the program, mainly its size is affected. I'll probably do
- it anyway, just so that others can see.
- {p} {p}
- As for the PPC version: As soon as the code is made a little bit more
- portable. Even though it is 100% C now, it is still very bad C in some
- places (:-), and needs to be cleaned up.
- {p} {p}
- AW: Will you migrate LhA to OS 3.5 / NG Amiga?
- {p} {p}
- JIM: Sure, if I can.
- {p} {p}
- AW: Was it on purpose you did not give your EMail address in the LhA
- archive, but only in the .readme?
- {p} {p}
- JIM: Yes. I knew it was going to change, soon (my new EMail is
- jamie_c@bellsouth.net), and I didn't want to have to send out notices to
- thousands of people.
- Those who were really interested in finding me, did. :-)
- {p} {p}
- AW: You cannot possibly get Jonathan Forbes to pass the source code of
- LZX to you, too? ;-)
- {p} {p}
- JIM: No, he went to work for Microsoft, and they incorporated his code
- into theirs.
- {p} {p}
- AW: Thank you for answering the questions. I hope you get the honors
- you deserve for your effort...
- {p} {p}
- JIM: Not necessary. I simply like to program on the Amiga. I do it for
- fun.
- {p} {p}
- AW: ...and that this interview saves you some dozen of emails asking
- you the same questions over and over again.
- {p} {p}
- JIM: Too late. :-)
- {p} {p}
- The new LhA can be downloaded from Aminet: util/arc/LhA194.lha, and a
- (albeit old) self-extracting archive for MS-DOS is available at
- util/arc/msdos-lha.exe.If you want to keep up-to-date with new versions,
- have a look at the Amiga Version Watch.
- {p} {p}
- {bold}Interview of Jim Cooper as taken from www.amigaworld.com{nobold}