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Chaos Corner v01 n03
Chaos Corner v01n03 24Jul91
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Archiving and Compression
Here we are again! The topic for today is archive and compression
programs! An alternative way of putting it is, "I went to that server
with the funny name you told me about and got the file, but now when I
try to execute it, nothing happens!"
Most files that are available for you to retrieve by anonymous FTP are
actually compressed libraries. Each system platform has one or more
"standard" ways of building libraries and compressing/uncompressing
files. There are even some areas of compatibility so that you can, for
instance, pull the documentation out of a MS-DOS-style library while you
are logged onto VM/CMS and see if the program looks interesting enough
to download to your PC over a 2400 baud modem connection.
The first concept is one of the library. If a program package requires
multiple files, it is very handy to be able to combine the multiple
files into a single file allowing easier retrieval from bulletin-board
systems and across the network.
Because of the even slower speed of normal communications (300 baud),
algorithms were quickly developed to "squeeze" the files as they were
combined into the library. The compression algorithms became more
sophisticated and for some time the standard format in the PC world used
the .arc extension. The vendor of the leading program was System
Enhancement Associates (SEAware). Along came Phil Katz who wrote an
excellent shareware version of the software called PKARC, and he even
extended the .arc format to include some better and faster compression
techniques! SEAware got upset and decided to sue Phil Katz; and, to
make a long story short, Phil was prohibited from using ".arc" and now
produces and maintains PKZIP -- using .zip as the filename extension.
The grassroots resentment against SEAware was so great, almost all
bulletin-boards and FTP sites immediately converted to .zip format files
and almost so .arc files can be found any more.
Now the problem with .zip is that the format and the software basically
belongs to Phil Katz. Progress hasn't been as swift as some people
would like; there exist programs to un-zip archives in VM/CMS and in
Unix, but there are no utilities on those systems to create archives in
that format (a Unix program to create zip archives is rumured to be
available Real Soon Now). One format that IS publicly available is the
.zoo archive, and recent work has resulted in ZOO 2.1 which has one of
the best (space) compression algorithms (but it still runs slowly). The
major advantage for ZOO is that the C source is widely distributed and
so is available on a number of platforms. There are many suggestions
that the archives on the network convert to the .zoo format on some
date, say August 15, 1991. The zoo 2.1 files are available on
wuarchive.wustl.edu in the mirrors/msdos/zoo directory as .exe files.
These are "self-extracting archives" because when you enter the file
name as a command, the command uncompresses and extracts all the files
that are stored within it. The file you should retrieve is zoo210.exe.
For the Macintosh platform, things seem a bit more calm, with the
standard utility being Stuffit!, written by a 17 year-old high school
student. (He is now in his third year at MIT, so your shareware
registration fees will help put him through college). Mac files that
have been processed with Stuffit! usually have a .sit extension in the
filename.
Of course, with Unix, the rule is to not use one utility when you can
use two. The program to build libraries is "tar" (tape archive) and the
utilities to compress/uncompress files is (oddly) compress and
uncompress. Files that are in a tar archive have a .tar extension, and
files that have been compressed have a .Z (yes, an uppercase z)
extension. So, if I have a file named glarch.tar.Z, I would first
uncompress it (uncompress glarch.tar -- will automatically find the file
and remove the .Z suffix) and then un-tar it (tar -xvt glarch.tar). You
may want to use "tar -cvt glarch.tar" first to see where tar is going to
place the files it extracts ... especially if you are running with root
privileges!
Mailbag -- Questions to Read! Dr. Chaos (rdc@cornella.cit.cornell.edu)
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Vt100 emulation on 3270
On the question of vt100 emulators for people using 3270s, Gerhard
Rentschler at University of Stuttgart found a reference on VMSHARE
indicating that a company called Trax Softworks had a product
(VM/Dialout) that provided some emulation. As Gary Buhrmaster of
Cornell points out, the emulation must be very basic (no interrupts on
each keypress) unless you are willing to pay a terrible price in host
cycles. Nick Gimbrone from Cornell forwarded an item from the IBM
TCP/IP List (IBMTCP-L) indicating a product named A-NET from Teubner and
Associates also existed that performed the emulation and ran as a VTAM
application.
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GIF vewers for the Macintosh
On the topic of GIF viewers for the Mac, Bob Blackmun at UNCCVM
recommends GIF-converter 2.2.8 as being very solid with lots of
capabilities for manipulating and storing files in various formats
(PICT, TIFF, RIFF, EPS, and others). My tester verified that while the
output options are nice, the program does not get along very well with
Mac System 7.0.
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archie is not edu, it's ca
One reader reported problems with connecting to the archie server at
quiche.cs.mcgill.edu. Dr. Chaos caught this problem immediately since
he has watched me make the same mistake time and time again. McGill
University is in Canada (the pink country to the north of us on the map)
and therefore the network name ends with '.ca', not '.edu'.
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BinHex and StuffIt revealed (sit, hqx, et all)
Tom Young of Cornell sent Dr. Chaos an explanation of the Macintosh
utilities BinHex 4.0, BinHex 5.0, and Stuffit! that he posted to the
info-mac list in February, 1990. It appears that one major confusion
might arise from the fact that BinHex 4.0 is actually more advanced than
BinHex 5.0. (The 4.0 version is the one that creates files with the
.hqx extension.) If you download from a bulletib-board or archive site,
a frequent problem is a reported "checksum error." The usual problem is
that the posting is actually an e-mail message with the hqx file
attached -- and BInHex 4.0 isn't smart enough to remove all the text
above the line "This file must be converted using BinHex 4.0". Doing
that by hand with word processor and saving the result as "text only"
should allow BinHex 4.0 to decode it.
Seemingly Random and Self Similar Things
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The famous Bill Gates memo
Bill Gates, the Microsoft CEO, wrote a memo to his senior exective staff
that was leaked to the press and has created lots of opportunities for
"analysis" of Gates' psyche and Microsoft's health. Dr Chaos was able
to obtain a copy of what is claimed to be the text from the memo. He
assures me that the text seems to agree substantially with what has been
reported (although it sounds a bit more reasonable in proper context).
If you are interested, look for file gates-memo in the /pub directory on
pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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Site license for OSF software
In case you are not aware (Dr Chaos assures me that he is ALWAYS
aware!), Cornell is a member of the Open Software Foundation and has
site licenses for the currently shipping OSF/1 and OSF/Motif products.
OSF/Motif is currently at release 1.1 (compatible with X11R4), patch
level 2 (otherwise known as 1.1.2). The next patch level (fixes about
150 bugs) is expected to start shipping sometime in August. Contact
Steve LaSala if you are interested in obtaining access to this software
(lasala@trumpet.cit.cornell.edu). While there is no cost, if you are
associated with Cornell, there are some licensing restrictions that you
need to agree to before you can get the software.
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COPYTAPE --- tape copying utility
A utility named COPYTAPE is available (in public domain) that will copy
tapes, preserving blocking structure and placement of tape marks, and it
reportedly also provides information about the format of the input tape.
Has anyone used this program and/or have any comments about it?
According to "archie", a copy is located at ftp.acsu.buffalo.edu in the
/pub directory under the name copytape.tar.
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The GNU utilities
The GNU Project (GNU is Not Unix -- yes, it's a recursive acronym) has
released a number of Unix-like file utilities (cat, grep, chmod, chown,
cp, etc.), and, like the other GNU software, they are available by
anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in the /pub/gnu directory. GNU
software is free from AT&T licensing restrictions, although you should
read the copyleft (that's correct, copyleft) agreement before you use or
make available GNU-based software.
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PostScript printer initialization
Ever wonder how to print a PostScript file generated on a Macintosh from
your Unix system on a PostScript printer that hasn't been initialized
properly? There is a program on apple.com called macPs, it's in
/ArchiveVol2/Postscript directory. Assuming that you have the Laser
Prep file from a Mac, and the PostScript file you want to print, macPs
will act as a filter and edit the prep file into the PostScript file at
the appropriate point. Dr. Chaos suggests you could always just use a
Mac to drive the LaserWriter ... anyone have some spare 128K Macs?
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Unix shell - tcsh
If, in the Unix shell game, you are a devotee of tcsh, there is a new
version available that is beiing distributed in full (for the first
time) under the Berkeley copyright agreement. You can find it locally
at tesla.ee.cornell.edu in the file /pub/tcsh-6.00.tar.Z. For those of
us with fumble fingers, one of the great things about tcsh over csh is
the ability to easily do command recall and editing. Of course, Dr
Chaos never mistypes a Unix commnad, so he doesn't need this feature.
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Viewing Postscript files in an X-Window
Ever want to preview PostScript files easily in an X-Window? In a
previous issue I referred to a PostScript (well, actually Ghostscript)
previewer named ghostscript. There is now an X-Window user interface
for Ghostscript available called GSPreview from export.lcs.mit.edu
[18.30.0.238] under /contrib/gspreview1.0+wcl.tar.Z. The files for
ghostscript are not included here, you have to get them from the same
place you get the other GNU software -- prep.ai.mit.edu in the /pub/gnu
directory. GSPreview includes a small patch to ghostscript so the two
programs can communicate. X11R4 is required, as is the Athena widget
set. This software is announced as release 1.0 (beta) so there might be
some rough edges.
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Update to Windows 3.0a available
There was a possibly confusing item in the last Chaos Corner about an
update to Windows 3.0a being available. Dr. Chaos has suggested an
improved explanation, so we are going to try again. The update is at
cica.cica.indiana.edu in the /pub/pc/win3/util directory. Because of
some problems in the initial uploads, there are three (3) files that
have to be retrieved (win3a1.zip, win3a2.zip, and win3a3.zip). Gerhard
Rentschler at the University of Stuttgart wondered how to install
updates and it activated Dr. Chaos to start cruising the network looking
for the answer. Thanks to Holger Veit at the University of Duisberg we
have the following answer:
1. Create a new directory, let's say C:\WININST;
2. Unzip WIN3A1.ZIP, WIN3A2.ZIP, WIN3A3.ZIP (in this sequence;
allowing PKUNZIP to overwrite the old files) into this directory;
3. Do SUBST A: C:\WININST; and
4. Set A:, run A:SETUP, answering the questions correctly.
The result, as Dr. Chaos can proudly verify, is a working Windows 3.0a.
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CPU utilization meter under Windows
Some acquaintances of Dr. Chaos have been known to poke fun at his
personal computer because it is not only air-cooled, but it doesn't have
an indicator to show the CPU utilization. While the recent spell of hot
weather has demonstrated the need for water-cooling, real help has come
from another direction. Performance Meter 2.0 is a Windows 3.0 program
that puts a small CPU utilization bar chart (similar to xload on Unix
systems) in the upper right corner of the screen. The program can be
found on cica.cica.indiana.edu in file /pub/pc/win3/util/perfm201.zip.
Dr. Chaos is already trying to figure out how to save the charts into an
Excel spreadsheet so he can justify a CPU upgrade.
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Command line interface for Windows
Several interesting programs Dr Chaos downloaded recently may help him
eliminate his annoying habit of bringing up a fullscreen version of DOS
every time he needs to do some file manipulation in Windows. Two
programs, WINCLI and PSHELL bring the DOS command line to a window with
scrollback and (in the case of PSHELL) most of the functionality of 4DOS
(including command recall and editing). Another program, File Manager,
puts up a window containing what appears to be to independently
functioning "Open" dialog boxes with action buttons like "move" and
"copy" between them. File Manager seems fairly easy to use and is
certainly better than the program that comes with Windows 3.0! All
programs are on cica.cica.indiana.edu in the /pub/pc/win3/util
directory. PSHELL is in 4win105.zip; File Manager is in fileman.zip,
and WINCLI is in wincli21.zip.
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WinQVT/Net -- TCP/IP clients for Windows
The Windows program Dr. Chaos favors for network access (WinQVT/Net) has
just been updated again. SIMTEL20 (and mirror sites like
wuarchive.wustl.edu) have version 1.73, but version 1.8 has just
appeared at cica.cica.indiana.edu in the /pub/pc/win3/util directory
under the name qvtnet18.zip. The new version has a two-statement script
language allowing you to fire up telnet sessions and logon to hosts
during the Windows startup (you can also change the foreground and
background colors on the FTP and NNTP screens).
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Solar Eclipse GIF files
While some people were traveling to various parts of the world to view
the recent solar eclipse, Dr Chaos viewed the eclipse from a different
perspective -- that of the GEOS weather satellite. A series of striking
(black and white, unfortunately) satellite photos is stored on
vmd.cso.uiuc.edu in the phil.515 directory. SOLAR17Z.GIF through
SOLAR21Z.GIF (the number is the approximate Greenwich Mean Time of the
photo - Zulu) is a series of pictures as the shadow of the moon moved
across the earth from Hawaii, across Mexico and South America.
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Online Card Catalog access under Windows
For those of you who would rather conduct searches of library card
catalogs than view pretty pictures, there is a newly announced hypertext
viewing program that runs under Windows 3.0 and provides connection and
search information for the On-Line Public Access Catalogs (OPACs). The
software is called CATALIST and it is available from ZEBRA.ACS.UDEL.EDU
in the directory pub/library. You will not be able to list the
directory, but you can get the readme.txt file that explains how to get
everything else you need. Dr. Chaos hasn't had a chance to unpack the
files yet, but it does look promising.
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Free NFS server software for the PC
Dr. Chaos loves connecting his machines together and trying to discover
new, unnatural acts for them to perform. The latest activity (performed
in the dead of the night) was to NFS mount his PCs hard disk on his Unix
system and (gasp) back up the disk to an 8mm tape! It all worked after
only about 20 tries (not the fault of the software), and, in fact, the
files we discuss here can often be found in the /pub/puffin directory of
pelican.cit.cornell.edu -- and that directory is REALLY /pub of the
DOS/WIndows machine puffin.cit.cornell.edu. The NFS server software,
soss (Son of Sam's Server), can be found on grape.ecs.clarkson.edu in
the /pub/msdos/tcpip directory. The file soss.zoo contains source and
executables, and sossexe.zoo contains just the executables. Get
sossread.me for more information. Unfortunately, the software doesn't
cooperate with WinQVT/NET, so the puffin directory is present when Dr.
Chaos isn't "doing" Windows. Now, the REAL reason for bringing this up
is that the aforementioned directory contains some VERY important files
... back issues of ..(you guessed it!).. * Chaos Corner * -- they can
be found under the user-friendly names of ccv01n**.<ext> where ** is the
edition number, and <ext> is doc for the winword document, mac for the
Macintosh Word format document, and txt for the plain text file.
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High speed modems and maximum data rates
Ever wonder what is maximum data rate that can be achieved over current
voice-grade lines? The current bottleneck (according to the discussion
on the comp.dcom.modems newgroup) is the analog-to-digital converter
used in the central office. Based on the rate that the converter
(called the CODEC) samples the analog line, the maximum data rate is
about 22-24Kbps -- of course, that does not take into account any
compression the modems may be doing for you. Dr. Chaos was heartened by
the possibility of a modem speedup by a factor of 10 over what he is
currently using.
--------------------------------------------------
BBS numbers for modem manufacturers
If you are buying any of the new modems high speed modeme, you should
know that many manufacturers have bulletin-board systems available for
you to call and receive software, tips, and customer support. Some of
the numbers are:
Hayes Public BBS 404-446-6336 BBS/email&messages
Hayes Public BBS 800-874-2937 BBS/Tech Support
Intel 800-538-3373 Tech Support
Intel Support 503-645-6275 BBS
Telebit Corp. 800-835-3248 Tech Support
U.S. Robotics 708-982-5092 BBS
Everex 415-438-4650
There are also some cute numbers like 1-800-DIAL-USR, or 1-800-US-HAYES,
but Dr. Chaos doesn't like to talk about them.
--------------------------------------------------
Info on making your computer noisy
As a change in pace from displaying pictures, your computer can also
make a variety of sounds. To help you know more about what is
available, there is an online newletter carrying information on such
topics as:
-- Midi BBS listing (issue 4)
-- FTP sites that carry sound files and players
-- Reviews of new sound software
-- Questions asked about playing sound files
-- Latest in sound hardware
Dr Chaos has not extended his environmental pollution to include the
aural sense (yet) -- it is just a little chilling to hear HAL's voice
come out of the speaker on your computer. At any rate, the issues of
the sound newsletter can be found on wuarchive.wustl.edu in the
mirrors/misc/sound directory in the files sound1.txt -- sound5.txt. The
program in remac.zip is supposed to allow PCs to play Mac sound files,
and playmac2.zip contains a "point-and-shoot" interface for remac. The
5th issue of the newsletter contains a list of FTP sites and BSSs for
sound files.
Quiet! (or, if you leave in California, Peace!)
Dr. Chaos (I have a Master's Degree)
Send requests to rdc@cornella.cit.cornell.edu to get on the e-mail list.
