Simtel MSDOS - Coast to Coast/simteldosarchivecoasttocoast.iso/archiver/arj241a.exe/WHY_ARJ.DOC

Text File | 1993-07-20 | 8KB | 161 lines

     WHY_ARJ.DOC                        April 1993


     This document describes the benefits of ARJ.  ARJ is now a trend
     setter in archivers with other archivers following suit.

     You can find reviews of ARJ in the following magazine articles:

     Computer Personlich, June 12, 1991, Leader of the Pack, Bernd
     Wiebelt and Matthias Fichtner.  In this German magazine, ARJ 2.0 was
     named Test Sieger (Test Winner) over six other archivers including
     PKZIP and LHA.  Compression, speed, documentation, and features were
     compared.

     PC Sources, July 1991, Forum, Barry Brenesal, "A new challenger, ARJ
     2.0, not only offers the speed of PKZIP, but also has the best
     compression rate of the bunch."

     Computer Shopper, September 1991, Shells, Bells, and Files:
     Compressors for All Cases, Craig Menefee.    "ARJ ... is extremely fast
     and produces excellent compression; it ... has a rich set of options.
     ... This is a mature technology, and any of these programs will do a
     fine and reliable job."

     PC Magazine, October 15, 1991, Squeeze Play, Barry Simon.    "Jung has
     combined that foundation with academic research to produce an
     impressive product. ...  If your main criterion is compressed size,
     ARJ will be one of your two main contenders, along with LHA."

     SHAREWARE Magazine, Nov-Dec 1991, Fall Releases, Joseph Speaks.  "Don't
     tell the creators of ARJ that PKZIP is the standard for data
     compression.  They probably already know.    But that hasn't stopped
     them from creating a data compression utility that makes everyone -
     even the folks at PKWare - sit up and take notice. ... but compression
     statistics don't tell the whole story.  The case for using ARJ is
     strengthened by new features it debuts."

     BOARDWATCH Magazine, December 1991, ARCHIVE/COMPRESSION UTILITIES.
     "This year's analysis rendered a surprise winner.  Robert K. Jung's
     ARJ Version 2.22 is a relatively new compression utility that offers
     surprising performance.  The program emerged on the scene within the
     past year and the 2.22 version was released in October 1991.  It rated
     number one on .EXE and database files and number two behind LHarc
     Version 2.13 in our directory of 221 short text files."

     INFO'PC, October 1992, Compression de données: 6 utilitaires du
     domaine public, Thierry Platon.  In this article, the French magazine
     awarded ARJ 2.20, the Certificat de Qualification Labo-tests InfoPC.

     PC Magazine, March 16, 1993, PKZIP Now Faster, More Efficient,
     Barry Simon.  "One of the more interesting features is the ability to
     have a .ZIP file span multiple floppy disks, but this feature is not
     nearly as well implemented as in ARJ."


     ARJ FEATURES:

     1)  Registered users receive technical support from a full-time
     software author with over FIFTEEN years of experience in
     technical support and software programming.  And YES, ARJ is a
     full-time endeavor for our software company.  ARJ and REARJ have
     proven to be two of the most reliable archiver products.  We
     test our BETA test releases with the help of thousands of users.

     2)  ARJ provides excellent size compression and practical speed
     compared to the other products currently available on the PC.

     ARJ is particularly strong compressing databases, uncompressed
     graphics files, and large documents.  One user reported that in
     compressing a 25 megabyte MUMPS medical database, ARJ produced
     a compressed file of size 0.17 megabytes while LHA 2.13 and
     PKZIP 1.10 produced a compressed file of 17 plus megabytes.

     3)  Of the leading archivers, only ARJ provides the capability of
     archiving files to multiple volume archives no matter what the
     destination media.  ARJ can archive files directly to diskettes
     no matter how large or how numerous the input files are and
     without requiring EXTRA disk space.

     This feature makes ARJ (DEARJ) especially suitable for
     distributing large software packages without the concerns about
     fitting entire files on one diskette.    ARJ will automatically
     split files when necessary and will reassemble them upon
     extraction without using any EXTRA disk space.

     This multiple volume feature of ARJ makes it suitable as a "cheap"
     backup utility.  ARJ saves pathname information, file date-time
     stamps, and file attributes in the archive volumes.  ARJ can also
     create an index file with information about the contents of each
     volume.  For systems with multiple drives, ARJ can be configured
     to save the DRIVE letter information, too.  Files contained
     entirely within one volume are easily extracted using just the one
     volume.  There is no need to always insert the last diskette of
     the set.  In addition, the ARJ data verification facility unique
     to ARJ among archivers helps ensure reliable backups.

     4)  The myriad number of ARJ commands and options allow the user
     outstanding flexibility in archiver usage.  No other leading PC
     archiver gives you that flexibility.

     Here are some examples of ARJ's flexibility.

     a)  Search archives for text data without extracting the
         archives to disk.
     b)  Save drive letter and pathname information.
     c)  Re-order the files within an ARJ archive.
     d)  Merge two or more ARJ archives without re-compressing files.
     e)  Extract files directly to DOS devices.
     f)  Synchronize an archive and a directory of files with just a
         few commands.
     g)  Compare the contents of an archive and a directory of files
         byte for byte without extracting the archive to disk.
     h)  Allow duplicates of a file to be archived producing
         generations (versions) of a file within an archive.
     i)  Display archive creation and modification date and time.
     j)  And much more.

     5)  ARJ provides ARJ archive compatibility from revision 1.00 to now.
     In other words, ARJ version 1.00 can extract the files from an
     archive created by the current version of ARJ and vice-versa.

     6)  ARJ provides the facility to store EMPTY directories within its
     archives.  This makes it easier to do FULL backups and also to
     distribute software products that come with EMPTY directories.

     7)  Both ARJ self-extracting modules provide default pathname support.
     That means that you can build self-extracting archives of software
     directories containing sub-directories.  The end user of the
     self-extracting archive does not have to type any command line
     options to restore the full directory structure of the software.
     This greatly simplifies software distribution.

     8)  The ARJ archive data structure with its header structure and 32
     bit CRC provide excellent archive stability and recovery
     capabilities.    In addition, ARJ is the only archiver that allows
     you to test an archive during an archive process.  With other
     archivers, you may have already deleted the input files with a
     "move" command before you could test the built archive.  In
     addition, the test feature allows one to select an actual byte for
     byte file compare with the original input files.  This is
     especially useful for verifying multi-megabyte files where a 32 bit
     CRC compare would not provide sufficient reliability.

     9)  ARJ provides an optional security envelope facility to "lock" ARJ
     archives with a unique envelope signature.  A "locked" ARJ
     archive cannot be modified by ARJ or other programs without
     destroying the envelope signature.  This provides some level of
     assurance to the user receiving a "locked" ARJ archive that the
     contents of the archive are intact as the "signer" intended.

     10) ARJ has MS-DOS 3.x international language support.  This makes ARJ
     more convenient to use with international alphabets.

     11) ARJ has many satisfied users in countries all over the world.    ARJ
     customers include the US government and many leading companies
     including Lotus Development Corp.

     end document