home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Falcon 030 Power 2
/
F030_POWER2.iso
/
ST_STE
/
MAGS
/
ICTARI01.ARJ
/
ictari.01
/
ASSEMBLY
/
CRUNCH
/
CRUNCH40.DOC
< prev
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-03-04
|
5KB
|
113 lines
THIS PROGRAM IS PUBLIC DOMAIN.
Permission is granted to copy this program along with it's documentation
as long as such copying is not for profit.
This program will crunch an GEMDOS executable file (i.e.
files with extensions .PRG, .TOS, .TTP & .APP) into another single,
but shorter, executable file, thus using up less disk space, and also
loading slightly quicker. Although this file will be smaller than
the original, it will still execute exactly as did the longer original.
The program requires a command line of the following format:-
[-[h][d][u][i]] <pathname>
Where:-
h Will hold screen when program has finished (useful if you are
running from the desktop).
d Will stop the deletion of the original file. (i.e. will give the
file the extension .CRU if crunching and .UCR if uncrunching
instead of using the original file extension and thus deleting the
original file).
u Will cause the program to only uncrunch, crunched
files,ignoring all others.
i Will cause the program to ignore errors (useful when one
file is generating a read error)
If you use any of the above qualifiers you must precede them all
with a '-' character.
<pathname> is a standard GEMDOS path
e.g.
-hu a:\bits\*.*
Hold screen on exit, uncrunch all files in folder "bits" on drive A.
d:\assembler\programs\*.prg
Crunch all .PRG files in folder "programs" in folder
"assembler" on drive D.
-h *.*
Crunch all files on current drive and hold screen on exit.
Crunching files
---------------
When a file is crunched successfully it will be written
back on to disk with the same name as it had before, thus erasing the
original. There is no need to worry about this though, as if a file
doesn't work when crunched it can be uncrunched and restored to
exactly as it was before. This shouldn't happen though as from about 90+
files I have crunched all have worked perfectly when crunched
(honestly!). (You can disable this deletion of the original file by
specifying the 'd' qualifier in the command line). Some files will of
course not crunch at all and some may only be reduced by a couple
of K. However, I have seen certain program files crunched from 80K
to 20K, so large reductions are quite possible.
Non-executable files will, of course, be ignored by the
cruncher.
The aim of this cruncher is to shorten files so that they use
up less disk space, so the cruncher will only write a crunched file,
back to disk, if it does in fact use less disk space, otherwise it
will generate the message "File uncrunchable".
Uncrunching files
-----------------
When uncrunching, the uncrunched file will be written back to
disk with the same name as the crunched file had. If you don't wish
this to happen then the 'd' qualifier will cause it to be written with
the extension 'UCR'.
Running out of memory
---------------------
If you run out of memory try getting rid of all ram disks,
desk ACCs. Copy the cruncher onto the disk that has the files to be
crunched and execute it from there. If this fails then the only option
is to upgrade your memory. A 1 Meg. ST should be able to crunch any
conceivably sized program, although a 520 may have problems with
very large program files.
I find the best "crunching" environment is to put the
cruncher into a ram disk as small as possible (i.e. one with about
3K free space) and then inserting the disks with the programs to be
crunched into the floppy drive. You can then crunch the files by
preceding the pathname with the drive number (e.g. "A:..."). I have the
cruncher write over the original files with the crunched versions,
because the crunched versions always work and if you wish to get the
original file back you can always uncrunch it. If you would
rather the original not be deleted then use the 'd' qualifier, although
this means there must be enough free space on the disk to accommodate
the new crunched file.
Disclaimer
----------
ICTARI can take no responsibility for any data loss or any other form of
damage arising from the use of this program.