Re: portable issues with zip files
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg38524] Re: portable issues with zip files
- From: Bill Rowe <listuser at earthlink.net>
- Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 23:40:47 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
On 12/20/02 at 4:24 AM, ErsekTR at navair.navy.mil (Ersek, Ted R) wrote: >Most of the time my files are less than 100 Kb, so I don't have much >need for compression. I think David Park recommends zip files not so >much for the compression, but because it allows him to make the >process of installing his packages easier. Whether it is easier to deal with zip files or individual Mathematica files depends primarily on the number of individual Mathematica files. If there is only one .m file and one .nb file, there really is no significant advantage to distributing them in a zip archive or equivalent. But for a large number of files, haveing them in a archive maintains the directory structure and does make installation significantly easier. >So to give the best support for all platforms what formats >should I provide? perhaps; ><filename>.zip ><filename>.sit.hqx There isn't much need for a .sit.hqx format. The .hqx implies the fle has been encoded into Binhex, a format used on the Mac to encode binary files into ASCII. If the .zip files go through .sit files will go through. Also, there is essentially no advantage to a Mac user of .sit over .zip. StuffIt Expander would be needed to decompress the .sit file. Since StuffIt Expander also deompresses the .zip file, the handling of the archive by a Mac user is the same. The only real advantage of a .sit format over a .zip format from a user perspective is the .sit format *when created on a Mac* retains information so that double clicking the file causes the program that created the file to launch and open it. In the earlier (pre Mac OS X) Mac systems, linkage between a file and the program that created it is totally independent of the filename including extension. There is no provision in the .zip format for retaining this information since this format was not developed for Macs and PC operating systems do not establish linkage between files and programs the way the earlier Mac OS did. ><filename>.tar.Z This format will also work fine for Macs. StuffIt Expander handles it fine. Also, Mac OS X is at heart a Unix OS. My experience is that it is beoming more common to see files only intended for usage on a Mac to be distributed in traditional Unix formats, particularly .gz. >I always thought if I post notebooks and packages without compression >as <filename>.nb and <filename>.m they are completely portable. Is >this true? As far as I can determine, this is true. I have never had a problem moving these files back and forth between the Mac I use at home and the PC I use at the office by simply copying them onto a floppy.