14 replies to this topic

[atari8warez]

After I downloaded the SpartaDos X toolkit my excitement was temporarly put on hold when I noticed all tools on that .atr was ARCed.
Well, it's nice to save some space but when you think about it with SpartaDos we have the ability to have large HD images, so why not simply create a large .atr and store all files on that toolkit unarced. Tonight I spent some time unarcing those files and creating such an .atr

Attached is the file for anyone who's willing to grab it. It will save you some unarcing everytime you want to use a tool from the kit.

Attached Files

•  SDX Toolkit (unarced).zip   208.57K   73 downloads

[drac030]

I would never guess that ARC archives are a problem for an SDX owner. Anyway, the main purpose of ARCing is that one *.ARC file may contain multiple files which belong to one program. Such an ARC file may of course be replaced with a subdirectory of unarced files, but I thought that it was easier to manage it as is, because otherwise the Toolkit ATR would have to contain a real lot of subdirectories.

Unpacking a file is easy:

ARC X fname

will unarc "fname.ARC" to the current directory. The Toolkit also contains a batch file X.BAT, which makest this even easier: you put X.BAT in a directory specified in your $PATH, then the following command:

-X fname

will unpack fname.ARC into subdir fname> located in the current directory.

[skr]

I personally like ARC archives. Full ACK to drac030, hadnling of a single file is much easier than dealing with lots of single files and directories. Just put the ARC to its destination, unARC it and done. That´s why we use SDX, isn´t it?

[atari8warez]

drac030, on Tue Aug 21, 2012 2:24 PM, said:

I would never guess that ARC archives are a problem for an SDX owner. Anyway, the main purpose of ARCing is that one *.ARC file may contain multiple files which belong to one program. Such an ARC file may of course be replaced with a subdirectory of unarced files, but I thought that it was easier to manage it as is, because otherwise the Toolkit ATR would have to contain a real lot of subdirectories.

Unpacking a file is easy:

ARC X fname

will unarc "fname.ARC" to the current directory. The Toolkit also contains a batch file X.BAT, which makest this even easier: you put X.BAT in a directory specified in your $PATH, then the following command:

-X fname

will unpack fname.ARC into subdir fname> located in the current directory.

Don't get me wrong, i have nothing against ARC ing the files. I just personally don't like unARCing everytime I need to use a tool, so it's more convenient for me that way.

I just decided to spend some time and unARC all at once so they'll be ready for use. Thanks to AspeQT unArcing time was much shorter  than it would have been had it been done on an Atari SIO device (like in the old days).  The reason I shared the ATR was that somebody else might be feeling the same way as I do so I can save them some time and effort.

And it's not just SDX or Atari, I do the same with my PC files, I always unzip/unrar them into folders and keep them that way (saves me a lot of time later) and when the HD space is as cheap as it is these days i can afford to do so.

By the way some archives with multiple files were unArced into folders (and subfolders) as you mentioned.

Edited by atari8warez, Wed Aug 22, 2012 12:52 AM.

[atari8warez]

skr, on Tue Aug 21, 2012 3:37 PM, said:

I personally like ARC archives. Full ACK to drac030, hadnling of a single file is much easier than dealing with lots of single files and directories. Just put the ARC to its destination, unARC it and done. That´s why we use SDX, isn´t it?

Honestly...., I use SDX to develop software and folders and subfolders (or directories/subdirectories in A8 parlance) are just good enough for me to arrange multiple files, unArching simply adds more work and I have already lots of it cut out for me

[spookt]

atari8warez, on Wed Aug 22, 2012 12:48 AM, said:

skr, on Tue Aug 21, 2012 3:37 PM, said:

I personally like ARC archives. Full ACK to drac030, hadnling of a single file is much easier than dealing with lots of single files and directories. Just put the ARC to its destination, unARC it and done. That´s why we use SDX, isn´t it?

Honestly...., I use SDX to develop software and folders and subfolders (or directories/subdirectories in A8 parlance) are just good enough for me to arrange multiple files, unArching simply adds more work and I have already lots of it cut out for me

But surely the point is they're only arc'd to ease distribution? It's the same as downloading a zip or tar archive. Once you have it you expand the archive and (usually) throw the archived version away. I doubt that anyone is expecting you to delete the files and re-expand each time you want to use a tool.

[atari8warez]

spookt, on Wed Aug 22, 2012 6:42 AM, said:

But surely the point is they're only arc'd to ease distribution? It's the same as downloading a zip or tar archive. Once you have it you expand the archive and (usually) throw the archived version away. I doubt that anyone is expecting you to delete the files and re-expand each time you want to use a tool.

Yes it is to ease distribution and if it was the 1980's we wouldn't even have this conversation. My point is, in this day and age we really don't need to archive Atari software for space considerations, most of us use SIO2PC or variety of other high capacity storage devices that can hold many thousands of Atari files no problem.. So I think maybe it's a good idea to distribute the tools in both forms -- in a large capacity ATR uncompressed and in ARCed format for people who prefer unArcing. I am for the uncompressed format as I no longer keep anything on floppies.

The number of downloads on the unarced file above tells me there are people who do agree with me.

Edited by atari8warez, Wed Aug 22, 2012 6:33 PM.

[kenames99]

I agree with atariwarez. in this day and age we can surely supply both.

[MEtalGuy66]

Whoah.. Ken Ames of BBS Express Pro fame?

Steve Carden still gets on here from time to time too. He's been having some health problems lately.. You should drop him a line. He'd love to hear from you, I'm sure..

Edited by MEtalGuy66, Wed Aug 22, 2012 10:53 PM.

[kenames99]

Yea, but i dont know about the fame part :-) i keep in touch with him. Thanks for your concern tho,I appreciate it.

[Fox-1 / mnx]

kenames99, on Wed Aug 22, 2012 11:50 PM, said:

Yea, but i dont know about the fame part :-)

You should.


(BBS Express Pro! 5.0b user)

[ProWizard]

I am not very known to SDX... and indeed... I tried it a few times, and I really thought: what the... why is everything arced in this?

Ofcourse I can unarc what I need... but when you are trying new things out (SDX is new for me) it s*cks bigtime.

So thank you atari8warez for providing this, and I think it is a good idea in next releases to provide fully unarced distributions, with subdirectories in stead of .arc-files. But if that doesn't happen, I hope atari8warez will be kind enough to release an .atr with all that.

So thanks again Atari8warez.

[atari8warez]

Marius1976, on Fri Aug 24, 2012 5:27 AM, said:

So thanks again Atari8warez.

No problem Marius, enjoy.... have you been away lately, haven't seen you posting for a little while?

[drac030]

atari8warez, on Wed Aug 22, 2012 12:44 AM, said:

I just personally don't like unARCing everytime I need to use a tool, so it's more convenient for me that way.

As already someone wrote above, you're not supposed to unpack a tool every time you need to use it. Rather, you're supposed to unpack it once to destination media and either keep it unpacked there (if useful) or delete from there (if not useful). The "destination media" being supposedly a fixed hard disk.

I understand that the ATR may be used some other way, i.e. as a mountable source of tools, which gets unmounted (with aspeqt or ape or so) when it is not needed, but may be quickly made accessible, when it is necessary. But the current Toolkit directory structure does not seem very suitable for that. I'd rather prefer everyone to pick whatever seems useful from the Toolkit ATR, and unpack it over to another disk with own directory structure made to suit personal preferences (and these are not the same for everyone I guess). That especially since certain files from the distribution archive (or subdir) may be suitable for different destination directories, such as binaries go to $PATH, but help files to $MANPATH.

[atari8warez]

drac030, on Fri Aug 24, 2012 1:52 PM, said:

As already someone wrote above, you're not supposed to unpack a tool every time you need to use it. Rather, you're supposed to unpack it once to destination media and either keep it unpacked there (if useful) or delete from there (if not useful).

Yeah I understand your point totally. I don't normally unarc a tool, use it and delete it, and then repeat the process every time I need to use the same tool (I think I used wrong wording in my previous message to make it sound like it). I normally unarc/unzip/unrar an archive and keep the contents in a directory structure, what I am saying here is that the majority of us no longer really need to ARC Atari files as the days of the modems and floppies are over. Of course there is a small community of Atari users who may still be using those devices and an ARCed toolkit may be a boon for them, but for the rest of us an HD image .ATR is the way to go, just pop-it into AspeQt and pop-it out when done - simple and convenient -

I like my Ataris as much as anybody else but I also appreciate convenience, perhaps I am not as die-hard about continuing the good'ol ways of the good'ol days as some other Atarians

Having said all that, if you'd rather distribute them in ARCed format only (for whatever reasons) we will still (unArc and) use them and thank you for the useful tools you provide.

Edited by atari8warez, Fri Aug 24, 2012 3:12 PM.