Raymond Lau's StuffIt rules supreme, but the new version of DiskDoubler from Salient may advance into StuffIt's domain. DiskDoubler 2.0 costs $79 (up $20 from the price of the previous version), but registered users will be rewarded with free upgrades. In return for the price hike DiskDoubler compresses files up to 250% faster and up to 200% smaller than StuffIt. The feature list continues, however. DiskDoubler works transparently in the standard open file dialog box. When a user selects a Nisus file, say, that has been compressed with DiskDoubler, it will be automatically decompressed and opened with no extra steps. Lest StuffIt users (and PackIt users, if they aren't extinct) feel left out, DiskDoubler can open both StuffIt and PackIt archives at a speed up to 250% faster than those programs. For maximum convenience, DiskDoubler can install another menu in the Finder so groups of files can be easily compressed or decompressed at any time. A free utility, DDExpand, allows anyone to decompress DiskDoubler files.

DiskDoubler's capabilities make it a convenient way to work with compressed files that has not been possible previously. Even with StuffIt's advances past PackIt, compressing and decompressing files is a multi-step process that is necessary but not particularly pleasant. If DiskDoubler lives up to its claims, everyone can store significantly more files on their hard disks. (Our hard disk is ready for this!) A feature not mentioned in the MacWEEK article that would make DiskDoubler more popular is transparent file compression on saving. PageMaker users would be especially pleased with this feature, given the size to which PageMaker files grow with seemingly little provocation. One caveat to all thisif files are compressed, the data contained in them will be harder to recover, if recovery is even possible, in the event of a disk crash.

Salient -- 415/852-9567

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MacWEEK -- 01-May-90, Vol. 4, #17, pg. 5