ARJ
What's new?
~~~~~~~~~~~
EVERYTHING !!
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Speed and other important issues
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, you can be happy, since this is definitely the FASTEST
UNARJ.TTP-depacker on the ST series. (Every depacker we could locate showed
ratings which differed by at least a factor 1.5 so it's advisable to
kill those if you have this one.
We support all regular UNARJ.TTP-options (except from Garble & Security
Envelope, which neither are supported by any other tool we know of.)
If you have had the pleasure to meet our previous release (UNARJ230),
you'll be very pleased to hear we are pushing that one right off the
road. (Speed-factor > 5 !!!) In fact, this thing a complete rewrite which
shares no code with the previous UNARJ versions which came from Insh_Allah's
hand. Mr Ni! from the TOS crew has optimized the decompression routines
severely; I believe we are the fastest ARJ-decompressor araound at the time
of this writing...
Unfortunately the depacker has grown another 20K but I think that won't
hurt all you HD-users. In exchange for this extra 20K code you have the
complete manual inside the .TTP (Still there are a lot of cocksuckers
that dare to copy the executables without adding the proper
documentation which was supplied with the original: this way you can
derive the documentation every time again and again!)
If you want a smaller executable (lunatic or disk-only user) we have a
Junior Version available in which we cut down on the options-palette for
both German & English lunatic/disk-only users.
Please note that the German version may contain even more typo's and
other editorial-related bugs/errors/features than the English version,
since the German language isn't our native language.
(We only included it since Germans seem to suffer from a sufficient
understanding of English.)
(For French people: recompile with -DLANGUAGE=FRENCH ;-))
Some crap about copyright, warez and all that sort of shit
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This package (UNARJ*.*) is mind-warez (You should at least feel guilty
when you don't send us a message or a postcard).
Everything you do or don't is your own problem: blowing fuzes and
melting Atari computers are not included in the insurance policy.
Anything else is neither. (You may praise who/what-ever you believe in
when you get this to work ;-)))
However we feel 'backing up your system before installing UNARJ' would
be a bit overdone...
Sources for this thing are available on request: we (both Mr Ni! and
myself) put in a lot of time in this product so we would appriciate any
donations (needn't be money, though! Extra processing power/devices are
welcomed too!) in exchange for the complete C/ASM-source release.
(Just write us a note when you're interested)
Future developments
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the moment our biggest problem is the reverse-engineering of the
various ARJ compression modes. We only have access to some C-source for
the depacker as distributed by Robert K Jung, however there's a good
chance of implementing Mode 4 (FAST) compression anyway. (Scheduled for
Dec. 1993 ... NO! April 1994, it's getting later ;-)) )
Huffman additions (Mode 1-3) will have to wait a little while
for us to get the inspiration to do it... At the moment we can't say
anything more about expected compression speed & ratio's so you'll have
to wait for that release (which would develop quite a bit faster if we
could get our hands on some C/ASM/Pascal(?! yuck!) source. (If you have
a ARJ-archiver-source written in APL or any other language we would be
happy to learn the language anyway ;-)))
This is a Alpha-release since we haven't had the time to check all
options extensively. Besides, we like to keep this a non-final version
until it can be distributed with our ARJ241à.
If you find anything which doesn't match our documentation,
please notify us through our contact addresses or support BBS in The
Netherlands (MBH BBS, for telephone number see the end of the document);
we will try to fix any problems a.s.a.p.
This distribution is dedicated to:
ALL VIRGINAL HARDDISKS OUT THERE
(unarj x -r~xd \*.ARJ was made for you, my dear!)
Redirection issues
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you peeked at the commandline options, you'd sure seen the
'redirection' text there: many people start to tremble when they see
this: Will my marv' shell be put out of bizz?!
No!
If you run a shell or anything that takes over redirection (by parsing
our commandline first!) we won't see the redirection commands given, thus
allowing the system to have it it's own way.
You should however note the fact that we don't differentiate between
STDOUT and STDERR in that case! (Well.... hm.... we do write STDOUT to
GEMDOS handle 1 (stdout) while STDERR is sent to GEMDOS handle -1
(non-redirectable (they say ;-)) stdout)
This is not so much a bug introduced by us as it is a system-wide
problem: TOS hasn't ever had a seperate stderr channel as has UNIX. So
the risk is high you will redirect both out STDOUT *and* STDERR messages
when redirecting using your fave commandline shell.
Here are the 'undocumented features (now documented ;-))' that touch the
redirection issue:
* STDOUT and STDERR will most probably not be recognized as seperate
output streams when redirecting.
* Keypress requests and all that sort of shit is NOT (repeat: NOT!)
suppressed when the system takes over redirection: we don't have a
method included (yet) to recognize external redirection. Therefore you
should use the appropriate command-options to disable every possible
request done by UNARJ.TTP
* Redirection used with TOS-versions before 1.4 could very well fail.
(As it would with other toolz)
If you use UNARJ's internal redirection routines however, there's a
difference between STDOUT and STDERR. Also we will message you about the
fact that output is redirected: most novice users get the shivers when
they don't see screen-output for more than five minutes...
If redirection attempts fail, you will be told about that fact too!
4DOS users will have noticed we use the 4DOS way of redirecting STDERR
('>&') instead of the UNIX way ('2>'). If you don't like it: don't use
it.
Environment
~~~~~~~~~~~
UNARJ.TTP will first look for an environment variable named ARJ_SW and
use its value as switch options for UNARJ.TTP.
You can inhibit UNARJ.TTP from using this environment variable by using
the "-+" option. You can also set the name of the environment
variable with the "-+" option as in
UNARJ.TTP x -+ARJCFG archive
Use some environment editing/setting tool to create an environment on
your Atari. (Most shells could use some script-file or seperate command
to do it...)
SET ARJ_SW=<switches>
Example:
SET ARJ_SW=-~arj- -jy+ -~k -e -v+ -~acv
Do NOT add any blanks after the variable name ARJ_SW. As in LHARC,
command line switches can be selected to override ARJ_SW settings.
UNARJ.TTP will allow you to use a different switch character "-" or "/"
in ARJ_SW and in the command line.
If the ARJ_SW environment variable specifies a filename (text not
beginning with a switch character), UNARJ.TTP will open that filename and
scan it looking for a line of text that begins in column 1 with the
same letter as the UNARJ.TTP command being executed. The following text
is processed as the ARJ_SW switches. This allows each UNARJ.TTP command
to have its own switch settings. In addition, UNARJ.TTP will also look
for the "+" (plus) symbol in column 1 to use as a miscellaneous
switch string. This string will be added to any command switch
string found if any. If no command switch string is found, UNARJ.TTP
will use the miscellaneous switch string as the ARJ_SW switch
settings. NOTE that the "+" switch settings will NOT be used
if the "+" string occurs below the command switch string.
Please note that we included the <-~ac> ('Assume Command') option for
this '+' line specially! This way you are able to specify default
behaviour of UNARJ (even when in complete ARJ compatibility mode
(<-~arj>))
SET ARJ_SW=C:\UNARJ\UNARJ.CFG
C:\UNARJ\UNARJ.CFG contains:
a -jm1 -ja -i1
c -zcomment.txt
+ -~v1
l -jp
e -i1
AND is equivalent to:
a -jm1 -ja -i1
c -zcomment.txt
l -jp -~v1
e -i1 -~v1
f -~v1
v -~v1
all other commands
.
.
.
In the above example, any UNARJ.TTP "l" commands will use "-jp -~v1"
as the ARJ_SW switch options.
Please note you can list ARJ commands here (so use your IBM-PC ARJ.CFG
setup!) but those lines will be skipped by UNARJ.TTP!
The ARJ_SW variable or the ARJ_SW configuration file switch
settings may *have* quoted switches such as "-vasformat a:". This is
opposite to the ARJ.EXE conditions.
Commandline usage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The only thing that has been and will be a constant factor for
UNARJxxx.TTP from the authors Insh_Allah/Mr Ni! is the ARGV & xArg
support.
Anybody using TeraDesk (from W. Klaren of the TOS-Crew) or TOS 2.xx or
above can install UNARJ.TTP with an option list. (Install Application)
Be sure to change this if it was previously set up for UNARJ230 or older
versions, since our commandline options have changed significantly.
As a bonus, an ICON (ICON.RSC, ICON.H) is included in this distribution
for use with the 'TeringDesk' ICON.RSC file: use some RSC-editor to include
this icon in your collection.
When you want this tool to depack your UNARJ.TTP archives to a seperate
directory each, you could specify
x -rayv+ %f h:\unarjed\%f\
as the 'Install application' commandline. Please note the trailing
backslash '%f\' or UNARJ won't recognize %f to be a sepearate subdir.
(resulting in beksmash)
(TeraDesk puts the UNARJ.TTP archivename at the %f location!)
*THIS IS AN IMPORTANT CHANGE* from previous versions!
For those among you that learned to live with the absolutely weird
options contained in UNARJ210/220/230 there's yet another major change:
from today we will be ARJ.EXE (from R.K. Jung) compatible at all levels.
However there are some discrepancies here:
* added options for ST users. (-~___ shifted switch options)
* toggle-behaviour of ARJ.EXE is NOT emulated to the extend of toggling
by multiple occurences of (Example:) -ja command-options.
We do support -ja-/-ja+ toggling, but <-ja -ja> will NOT reset the
<-ja> option flags as ARJ.EXE would do, since <-ja> is treated equal
to <-ja+> inside UNARJ241.TTP.
* very strict checking when using multiple volumes: ARJ..EXE only checks
the time-stamp and verifies the file-size (which *should* *be* *large*
*enough*) where UNARJ241.TTP does the same, except it will issue a
warning when the existing part of a multiple-volume file is found to
be larger than requested.
This habit is better in most circumstances (as we view it) but fails
when multiple volumes were created by ARJ.EXE using TEXT-mode (<-t1>,
<-t1f>, <-t1g>): ARJ.EXE switches back to binary mode for the second
part of the split-vol file while keeping the file-offset *value*.
(for technical oriented people: ARJ.EXE uses stdio/stdlib fwrite() and
fseek() which will behave different for TEXT & BINARY mode:
file-offsets differ!)
* directory-recognition is a bit worse: directories MUST be terminated
by a \ to be recognized as such: this alpha-release does not yet contain
code to check if the specified path ends with a directory- or filename.
This is true for both UNARJ.TTP-source-specification and basedir-spec.
Changes & Updates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Changes and updates to (UN)ARJ.TTP and the files distributed with UNARJ.TTP
will be listed in the file
CHANGES.LOG
This file will both list changes at both user-level (added options and changed
behaviour) and technical level (bugs and changes in the code for the
technical minded)
I (Insh_Allah) hope the information contained in the files CHANGES.LOG,
this file (WHATS.NEW) and the redirected manual, extracted from UNARJ.TTP,
USAGE.TXT, will enable you to use UNARJ to the full extent of its
possibilities.
If you discover problems, bugs or get the feeling you need some addition
to it all (user-request), don't hesitate and mail us.
If you want to mail us via MBH, please mail the fellow named Hans Wessels
(Mr. Ni!), since both Insh_Allah (G.E.G. Hobbelt) and Mr. Ni! (H. Wessels)
can access that one. If you have problems getting answers from us, it could
be that we once again didn't log in for over a month as we will probably
be submerged in the coding sea. In that case, ring the MBH Sysop -[TJS]-
or yell for the Atari-co-Sysop Chipswinger, as they both know about this
little UNARJ project of ours.
Real urgent stuff (or when you just want to make sure your stuff will
reach our eyes) just write us a letter or a postcard to one of the
following addresses:
Mr Ni!
Rohofstraat 116
7604 AK Almelo
The Netherlands
or:
Insh_Allah
Wierdensestraat 78
7604 BK Almelo
The Netherlands
May the Power in the Clouds be guiding your path!
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We hope you like this new UNARJ package for its speed and its
versatility. Furthermore we hope to have ARJ (ST) ready for you a.s.a.p.
Meanwhile; have phun using UNARJ241à for Atari ST/e/TT/Falcon.
Standard options and commands have been checked and no bugs were found on:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Atari ST (TOS 1.4) (1MB / 2.5MB / 4MB)
Atari ST (Kaos TOS 1.4.2) (1MB / 2.5MB / 4MB)
Atari ST (Kaos TOS 1.4.2) (1MB / 2.5MB / 4MB) (HBS240)
Atari TT (TOS 3.0x) (2 MB)
Atari TT (Mint/MultiTOS) (2 MB)
Atari Falcon (TOS 4.0x) (4 MB)
Atari Falcon (Mint/MultiTOS) (4 MB)
Thank you for using the ATARI ST-version of UNARJ 2.41à (rev. I_A/Ni! 1.101à)
converted by M()ir Brandts Honk/Insh_Allah/Mr Ni!(the Great)
For more info call MBH @ +31-70-3457929 / +31-70-3461215
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