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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: iamaboringperson on February 14, 2004, 05:32:28 AM

Title: What's the best LZX program?
Post by: iamaboringperson on February 14, 2004, 05:32:28 AM: I just want to unarchive LZX files on my Peg, so it must work on MorphOS. CLI prefered.

And another question:

Why do people use LZX? What are its advantages over LHA for example?
Title: Re: What's the best LZX program?
Post by: amigamad on February 14, 2004, 08:04:39 AM: This has morph os support

lzx repacker readme (http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/aminet/util/arc/LzxRepacker.readme)
lzx program download link (http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/aminet/util/arc/LzxRepacker.lha)

Dont know how good it is though. :-)
Title: Re: What's the best LZX program?
Post by: fragment on February 14, 2004, 08:42:28 AM: Errr, wasn't he looking for an unarchiver.. This one (http://www.aminet.net/util/arc/UnLZX2.lha) works on AOS, so should on MOS too...
Title: Re: What's the best LZX program?
Post by: Piru on February 14, 2004, 12:30:24 PM: Quote
I just want to unarchive LZX files on my Peg, so it must work on MorphOS. CLI prefered.

Use one of the unlzx tools provided, or the full blown LZX (http://www.aminet.net/util/arc/lzx121r1.lha) (includes free community keyfile) and apply Y2K fix (http://www.aminet.net/util/arc/LZX121r_pch.lha). Usage is similar to that of LhA (lzx x).

Quote
Why do people use LZX? What are its advantages over LHA for example?

LZX crunches better than LhA.
Title: Re: What's the best LZX program?
Post by: KennyR on February 14, 2004, 01:22:06 PM: LZX is definitely a better packer than LhA. But since the compressor is not open source (I think Microsoft licenced it for their CAB files, no less), you won't get a MOS-native version (or any other kind of non 68k-native version).

Not that it matters...Hotspot JIT is very fast. :)

Don't worry about 68k compressors on MOS. I haven't found one that doesn't work yet (unless it opens an AGA screen, like the early PowerPacker progs). And unless you're (un)packing HUGE archives, JIT is fast easily enough.
Title: Re: What's the best LZX program?
Post by: on February 14, 2004, 01:26:57 PM: LZX compresses better because of a nicer algorithm but also because it merges files together in chunks before compressing to get a better overall compression.

People who want to use LhA but hate it's not-so-hot compression can do a poor-man's route. Compare;

lha a somedirectory.lha somedirectory/#?

tar cf somedirectory.tar somedirectory/#?
lha a somedirectory.tar.lha somedirectory.tar

.. see the incredible gains in compression you get from merging files together. Actually I found that tar.lha files sometimes come in smaller than lzx ones :)

meow :)
Title: Re: What's the best LZX program?
Post by: Karlos on February 14, 2004, 03:01:35 PM: Ah, neko beat me to it.

I compressed a folder full of source code with lzx and the resulting archive was 1/3 the size of lha and 1/4 the size of zip :-o
Title: Re: What's the best LZX program?
Post by: KennyR on February 14, 2004, 03:06:02 PM: Tar'ing files first makes it easier for compression to do its work, especially for block-sorting compressors.

But it sucks. :)