Future Plans

In order of priority, these are the features I plan to add. The top few will appear in the next version.

• Recompile for PowerMac
• Plug-in capability, so that external code could be written to allow ZipIt to take advantage of other compression formats
• Integrated text reader so you don’t have to unzip a text file in order to read it
• Improve ZipIt’s AppleEvents, and support the AppleEvent Object Model
• Add a Replace All button, during the extraction process (sorry Kendall, couldn’t get it in this version.)
• Permit the creation of self-extracting archives, both IBM and Macintosh
• Improve the Add Files dialog box: Allow you to specify a DOS filename as you’re adding, and allow you to delete files after zipping
• Resize the zip window to show all entries (dynamically size the window)
• Add the ability to drag files into folders, and between archives. Add support for Drag and Drop Manager
• Possibly add a floating palette
• Add a factory settings options to the Extension Mapping preference dialog box

Changes history

Version 1.2.6 - January 10, 1995

• If you hold down the command and shift keys while starting up, SoftLock will be disabled. It will also be disabled if you are running under A/UX, due to incompatibilities. It can be turned back on, in any case, by holding down command and shift again while starting up ZipIt. (A/UX does not support the SCSI Manager, which SoftLock needs when starting up.)

• ZipIt also tests for the existence of the SCSI Manager before calling SCSI routines.

• Fixed bug in which ZipIt would sometimes report an unknown error of 1 when zipping onto floppies and running out of disk space.

• Fixed a bug in which, when re-saving archives created with PKZip 2.04g which contained directories, ZipIt would sometimes crash.

• Get Info box now displays file size in both klilobytes and bytes.

• This version will now check for an incompatible prefs file (ie, one that is too new).

• Upgraded to version 2.0 of the SoftLock library. This version eliminates the need for SCSI calls. However, these calls will still be made if have an old version of ZipIt's prefs. If you are upgrading from an older version, and you have not yet registered, I would recommend that you delete your ZipIt Prefs file, located in the Preferences folder of the System Folder.

• Multi-segment support

• Filename and other 'open' filters, selectable from the open dialog box

• New password system

• Fixed a bug introduced in 1.3 betas in which ZipIt might crash if you tried to enter an invalid password. Thanks to John Rawnsley.

• Fixed bug introduced in 1.3 betas which would make ZipIt fail if there was a zip file stored within the zip file. Thanks to Paul Gilmartin.

• If using the hardware system update 3.0 for system 7.1 and beyond, ZipIt's standard file dialog boxes are now colorized.

• Removed the now-redundant "Look inside files…" Preferences option.

• ZipIt will no longer use a temporary file if you are only adding to an archive (ie, you are not modifying any existing files).

• Fixed bug introduced in 1.3 betas which would cause ZipIt not to recognize MacBinary folders.

• Fixed bug that placed files in the wrong folder when unzipping an archive that contained an empty folder. (Thanks to Paul Gilmartin)

• ZipIt should now be able to zip empty folders as well.

• Fixed bug which caused ZipIt to crash when saving an empty zip archive. Thanks to Nick Zitzmann.

• Improved ZipIt's memory management. ZipIt would run out of memory in the past, especially when you had a lot of files in an archive, and would crash with a system error 25. ZipIt now insures that you have enough memory before starting to zip. If not, it attempts to use temporary memory. If it cannot, it tells you that there's no memory. In addition, ZipIt maintains a small amount of reserve memory. Finally, ZipIt's memory partition now defaults to 800K. ZipIt will probably run with less memory, but will have to use temporary memory when zipping a large number of files. I increased the partition, however, since no matter how many files were being zipped, there was an uncomfortably small amount of free memory available during the deflation process. Many thanks to Jamie McCarthy for helping to track this down.

• ZipIt will no longer report errors that it encounters when trying to create a temporary items folder. On shared volumes, ZipIt was receiving an 'access denied' message when trying to create a temporary items folder in the root of the volume. It compensated for this by storing the temp files in the same folder as the final archive was being saved, but the error message was distracting. Thanks to Martin Johnson.

• Fixed bugs in improved memory management, above.

• Fixed a bug in which, when a file had a different extra field in its local and central directories, it would not be properly unzipped. Thanks to Paul Gilmartin.

• Fixed a bug in which ZipIt would not be able to delete from one segment and, in the same operation, add to the final segment. Note that, as you can delete from but not add to intermediate segments, some disk space may end up being wasted.

• Strings moved to resources to aid in localization

• When you go back up a level in a hierarchical zip archive, you will be scrolled to the same place as before. (Cosmetic improvement)

• Finished segmenting. I have disallowed making changes to multi-segment archives because things get much too complicated; every routine would have to worry about whether the archive must be resegmented, and how, etc. Instead, you may resegment an archive explicitly by using the Save As command to save an archive to a floppy or hard disk. Changes may only be made to single-segment archives, although you may add files to multi• segment archives.

• Added the ability to Force MacBinary on for a file. Option-click the MB button to make ZipIt assume that an already-saved item is MacBinary.

Version 1.2.6 - January 23, 1994

• Fixed balloon help for zip menu

• Fixed a bug which would sometimes cause ZipIt to crash while zipping and adding linefeeds. (Thanks to Maury Markowitz.)

• Fixed bug which would cause ZipIt to sometimes crash when clicking OK in the Miscellaneous Prefs dialog.

• Finally fixed bug which was causing the open dialog box to crash machines with extensions interfering with the standard file dialog box.

• Fixed bug which caused the Extensions dialog box to report repeated errors under certain circumstances. (Thanks to FlowFazer on America Online.)

• Fixed bug in which ZipIt would fail if imploding a small text file (fewer than 512 bytes, or so) and adding linefeeds at the same time. (Thanks to telesis@ecf.toronto.edu)

• Added the ability to specify, in the extensions dialog, whether or not each extension represents a text file (and therefore should have its linefeeds stripped). Unfortunately, this means that you will have to re-enter any changes you made to the default extension mapping.

• Fixed bug in which ZipIt would sometimes crash when adding files with no extensions.

• Added the ability to register ZipIt by calling SoftLock Services.

• Fixed cosmetic problems involved in updating the window while adding files.

• Included AppleScript droplet for automating zipping files.

• Added preference allowing you to instruct ZipIt not to convert filenames to MS-DOS 8.3 format. This should only be used when the destination system is not a PC, eg, a Unix. ZipIt will still not permit a slash or a space in the filename, and will convert these to underscores.

• Added a Cancel All button to the rename dialog box to allow you to cancel all of those dialog boxes when you've added files with duplicate names.

• Errors that occur during extraction will now cancel the process. Therefore, if you run out of disk space while extracting, ZipIt will no longer present you with a string of dialog boxes.

• Fixed bug whereby you could not rename files on the top level of a zip archive. (Thanks to Exter on America Online.)

• Added a fix for files or folders with colons in their names. ZipIt will retain the colon, but if you try to unzip these files, the colons will be translated to hyphens. (Thanks to Paul Gilmartin.)

• If a CRC error occurs while unzipping, you may now stop the entire unzipping process. (Thanks to Sewell Chan)

• ZipIt now reports file sizes in kilobytes.

Versions 1.2.1, 1.2.5 - Not widely distributed

Version 1.2 - October 17, 1993

Version 1.1.1 - March, 1993

Version 1.1 - March 20, 1993

Version 1.0 - January 25, 1993 (initial release)