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crunch.doc
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1988-04-28
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DESOLE CRUNCH EST RETIRE POUR CAUSE DE COPYRIGHT
SORRY BUT CRUNCH SEEMS TO BE COPYRIGHTED
July 31, 1988
WARNING: I did not write this program, just this doc file, which is based on
3 hours of experimentation with Crunch. Since it is based on just the 3
hours I've used it, everything I say might be wrong :-). I found it on
GEnie, normally an at least semi-reputable network, with no docs at all,
nothing in the arc file but the program, and a short one paragraph
description of it before downloading. This program was obviously (to me it
appears obvious) written by one of the many European pirate groups. The name
"The New Masters", the lack of docs, and the rainbow graphics are a dead
giveaway. However, it appears to be a potentially very useful utility,
particularly for those of us whose Workbench disk is stuffed full of
utilities and can't find room for any more. Experiment with Crunch; test it
thoroughly before you use it on anything valuable to you. It works great for
me, but given the ancestry of it I can't guarantee it will not cause you
problems or loss of data or programs you really didn't want to lose. Use it
ONLY on backup copies.
Crunch is a utility that compresses single programs only, unlike ARC,
ZOO, or PAK, which can compress several files into one archive. The big
difference is, after compression with Crunch, the program is still an
executable file and does NOT have to be "unarc'd" or uncompressed before
being run. Like a PAK'd file, you do not need the original compression
program to uncompress a file. With PAK though, you must first unPAK the
file, and then run the program. With Crunch, the file uncompresses itself on
the fly and runs exactly like any other executable program, yet takes up much
less space on your disk. The added time it takes to uncompress itself
varies, but is usually not significant.
Run Crunch from the CLI. After a second of "rainbow graphics", it
brings up its own screen with just three menu items: Open, Write, and Quit.
When first started, the Write option is not available until you Open
something and "crunch" it. Then it can be written back to disk. Select
Open from the menu, and choose the program you want to crunch from the file
requester that comes up. The size in bytes of the file will be displayed as
the Source in the list on the left. The two large blocks labeled 'Time
Control' and 'Speed Control' will graphically show you what's happening while
the file is being crunched. When finished, the size of the file after
crunching will be displayed as Destination in the list on the left. This
size, plus the small 680 byte header that is added, equals the total size
which is displayed as All in the list.
Now you can select Write from the menu. When the file requester comes
up it should still have the program's name in the string gadget, so you can
just click OK and the newly-crunched, smaller file will be written to disk
and replace the old larger file.
The new, crunched file can still be run either from the CLI or via
Workbench, just like the old one. When run, it will display its typical
rainbow graphics while uncrunching.
If in the future you want to permanently uncrunch a file that you have
used Crunch on (i.e., return it to its normal size and state), just select
Open from the menu and then choose the file just as you would one that you
wanted to crunch. Crunch will detect that the file is already crunched, and
will uncrunch it, displaying some graphics while doing so in the large block
labeled 'Recruncher Control'. Its size before and after will also be
displayed as Source and Destination on the left. Then select Write from the
menu and write it back to disk in place of the crunched file.
I ran into several problems with Crunch. After crunching and saving to
a disk, the icon for that disk would not go away without rebooting. I got
several gurus in a row when I tried to save the crunched file to a device
other than the one it came from. You may or may not have these problems too.
When I booted up with a standard unaltered Workbench disk, Crunch seemed to
be less finicky. There also appear to be some programs that Crunch will not
compress. Three that I tried that it refused to do were DeluxePaintII,
Sculpt3D, and PhotonPaint. A message in the 'Status Line' said something
like "bad hunk struc." and the left mouse button had to be pressed to halt
everything.
Here are some examples from my experiments:
Digi-Paint: 102448 bytes before crunching, 13 seconds to load & run
65438 bytes after crunching, 15 seconds to load & run
Preferences: 58868 bytes before crunching, 8 seconds to load & run
35124 bytes after crunching, 8 seconds to load & run
PixMate: 109600 bytes before crunching, 17 seconds to load & run
81836 bytes after crunching, 26 seconds to load & run
Crunch seemed to also work fine on the few AmigaDOS commands that I
tried it on (Run, NewCli, FastMemFirst), although the rainbow graphics are
a bit annoying every time you use a crunched command. I highly recommend that
you do your own experimenting on some backup copies, until you're satisfied
that Crunch will work for you.
-Joel Salazar
PeopleLink: WALRUS
GEnie: WALRUS
CompuServe: 73557,2347
QuantumLink: SKYRAT