ÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÜÛÛÜ ÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛßßßÛÛÛÛ ßßßßÛÛÛÛßßßß ßßßßÛÛÛÛßßßß ÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ßßß ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛß ÛÛÛÛÜÜÜÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛÜÜÜÜÜ ÛÛÛÛßßßÛÛÛÜ ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛßßßßß ÛÛÛÛÜÜÜÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÛÛÛÛ ÜÜÜ ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛß ßÛÛß ßÛÛß ßÛÛß ßÛÛß ßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛß ßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛß ÜÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÜÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛÜÜÜÜ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛßßßß ßÛÛÛÛÛß ÛÛ ÜÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÜÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÛÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÛÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÜÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÜÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÜÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÜÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÛÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛÜÜÜÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛÜÜÜÜ ÛÛÜÜÜÜ ÛÛÜÜÜÜ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛßßßß ÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛßßßß ßßßßÛÛ ßßßßÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛÛÛÛÛ ßÛÛÛÛÛß ßÛÛÛÛÛß ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ßÛÛ ßÛÛÛÛÛÛ ßÛÛÛÛÛß ßÛÛÛÛÛß ßÛÛÛÛÛß ÛÛ ßÛÛ -=ð Battle of the Compressors 1993 ð=- The following is a text file describing tests I did on the most popular compressors today. I matched them head-to-head in an attempt to determine which did the best job. I saved my opinion and closing comments for the last section. So for now, let's see the results: ÛÛÛÛÛÛ» ÛÛÛÛÛÛ» ÛÛ» ÛÛ» ÛÛÛ» ÛÛ» ÛÛÛÛÛÛ» ÛÛ» ÛÛÉÍÍÛÛ» ÛÛÉÍÍÍÛÛ» ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛÛÛ» ÛÛº ÛÛÉÍÍÛÛ» ÛÛÛº ÛÛÛÛÛÛɼ ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛÉÛÛ» ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÈÛÛº ÛÛÉÍÍÛÛ» ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛºÈÛÛ»ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÈÛÛÛÛÛÛɼ ÈÛÛÛÛÛÛɼ ÛÛº ÈÛÛÛÛº ÛÛÛÛÛÛɼ ÛÛº Èͼ Èͼ ÈÍÍÍÍͼ ÈÍÍÍÍͼ Èͼ ÈÍÍͼ ÈÍÍÍÍͼ Èͼ I compressed nine single files, in three groups. LRG, MED and SML EXE were single executable files. LARGE EXE FILE = TC.EXE from the Turbo C++ 3.0 MEDIUM EXE FILE = SETUP.EXE from Windows 3.1 SMALL EXE FILE = USER.EXE from Windows 3.1 LRG, MED and SML DATA were single data files. LARGE DATA FILE = EDAM20.DAT from Writer's Toolkit 2.0 MEDIUM DATA FILE = GR_AM.LEX from Word for Windows 2.0 SMALL DATA FILE = GRAMMAR.DLL from Word for Windows 2.0 LRG, MED and SML DOC were single document files. LARGE DOC FILE = TCXL55.TXT from the CXL Library MEDIUM DOC FILE = ARJ.DOC from ARJ 2.39c SMALL DOC FILE = CLASSLIB.DOC from Turbo C++ 3.0 Here are the results: File Original PKZIP ARJ SQUEEZE HAP LHA Type ³ Size º 2.04g ³ 2.39d ³ 1.08.3 ³ 3.0 ³ 2.13 ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ ³LRG EXE³ 1,263,536 º 525,841 ³ 530,002 ³ 527,242 ³ 531,890 ³ 543,427 ³ ³MED EXE³ 422,080 º 191,497 ³ 193,495 ³ 192,613 ³ 196,941 ³ 198,108 ³ ³SML EXE³ 264,016 º 159,823 ³ 160,767 ³ 159,604 ³ 160,498 ³ 165,074 ³ ³ ³ º ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͵ ³LRG DATA³ 1,935,360 º 1,745,098³ 1,750,275³ 1,743,423³ 1,869,035³ 1,764,467³ ³MED DATA³ 780,688 º 463,108³ 467,266³ 463,090³ 469,209³ 487,099³ ³SML DATA³ 311,808 º 142,571³ 143,939³ 142,642³ 139,994³ 147,207³ ³ ³ º ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͵ ³LRG DOC³ 444,693 º 88,183³ 89,817³ 89,252³ 86,014³ 96,117³ ³MED DOC³ 143,835 º 45,323³ 46,146³ 45,802³ 37,637³ 49,809³ ³SML DOC³ 55,734 º 13,138³ 13,297³ 13,137³ 12,133³ 13,835³ ³ ³ º ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÊÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ; The compression was timed using TYME 2.0 by Bob Eyer. Here are the results: File PKZIP ARJ SQEEZ HAP LHA Type º 2.04g ³ 2.39d ³ 1.083 ³ 3.0 ³ 2.13 ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ ³LRG EXEº 36.15 ³ 41.59 ³ 39.50 ³ 167.03³ 35.65 ³ ³MED EXEº 13.02 ³ 14.72 ³ 14.39 ³ 55.60³ 13.02 ³ ³SML EXEº 9.06 ³ 9.06 ³ 9.94 ³ 43.29³ 8.73 ³ ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍ͵ ³LRG DATAº 68.02 ³ 60.43 ³ 66.53 ³ 508.62³ 53.79 ³ ³MED DATAº 25.54 ³ 28.57 ³ 25.54 ³ 123.84³ 23.90 ³ ³SML DATAº 9.56 ³ 10.93 ³ 10.32 ³ 41.92³ 9.67 ³ ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍ͵ ³LRG DOCº 10.54 ³ 16.09 ³ 11.75 ³ 29.61 ³ 13.07 ³ ³MED DOCº 5.54 ³ 4.34 ³ 5.93 ³ 9.61 ³ 5.10 ³ ³SML DOCº 1.75 ³ 2.47 ³ 2.30 ³ 4.50 ³ 2.30 ³ ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÊÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍ; EXES PKZIP did the best, followed by SQUEEZE. LHA dragged in last place, although did excellent in the time column. Overall, everybody was real close to each other, and no one stood out prominently. Timewise, HAP was embarassing, taking five times longer than everyone else. DATA SQUEEZE took the prize here, followed by PKZIP. Again, LHA dragged in last. Everybody still almost tied; no big differences in performance. HAP was incredibly slow, however. DOC HAP beat the pants off every other compressor. No one could even touch HAP, although it took twice as long to compress. Yet again, LHA dragged in last. ÛÛÛÛÛÛ» ÛÛÛÛÛÛ» ÛÛ» ÛÛ» ÛÛÛ» ÛÛ» ÛÛÛÛÛÛ» ÛÛÛÛÛÛ» ÛÛÉÍÍÛÛ» ÛÛÉÍÍÍÛÛ» ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛÛÛ» ÛÛº ÛÛÉÍÍÛÛ» ÈÍÍÍÍÛÛ» ÛÛÛÛÛÛɼ ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛÉÛÛ» ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛÛÛÛɼ ÛÛÉÍÍÛÛ» ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛºÈÛÛ»ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛÉÍÍͼ ÛÛº ÛÛº ÈÛÛÛÛÛÛɼ ÈÛÛÛÛÛÛɼ ÛÛº ÈÛÛÛÛº ÛÛÛÛÛÛɼ ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ» Èͼ Èͼ ÈÍÍÍÍͼ ÈÍÍÍÍͼ Èͼ ÈÍÍͼ ÈÍÍÍÍͼ ÈÍÍÍÍÍͼ I compressed a small, medium and large mixture of files in the first test. þ SML MIX consisted of my root directory (9 files) of mixed .bat, .sys and other files. þ MED MIX consisted of my C:\TASM directory, a mix of 17 executable, .com and .asm files. þ LRG MIX consisted of my C:\WINDOWS directory, a mix of 109 files, the usual Windows 3.1 type. Then I compressed a small, medium and large number of files. þ SML NUM consisted of 69 C++ files from Turbo C++ 3.0. þ MED NUM consisted of 97 C++ files. þ LRG NUM consisted of 490 C files from 15 different directories. My third test was kind of odd. I decided to compress a 218,864 byte executable file using this method: I compressed it with ARC I compressed the ARC'd file with SQUEEZE I then compressed the Squeeze'd file with PKZIP I compressed the PKZIP'd file with ARJ I finally compressed the ARJ'd file with LHA I did this "layering of compressors" to see if another compressor would shrink an ALREADY compressed file. My first reaction was "it will probably expand the file", and it did. But the results were interesting... Here are the results: File Original PKZIP ARJ SQUEEZE HAP LHA Type ³ Size º 2.04g ³ 2.39d ³ 1.08.3 ³ 3.0 ³ 2.13 ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ ³SML MIX ³ 138,040 º 33,381³ 33,486 ³ 32,770³ 33,131 ³ 33,277³ ³MED MIX ³ 481,262 º 226,915³ 227,631 ³ 226,170³ 220,965 ³ 234,527³ ³LRG MIX ³ 3,960,328 º 2,043,919³2,062,029 ³ 2,043,616³2,084,052 ³ 2,070,513³ ³ ³ º ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͵ ³SML NUM ³ 59,109 º 34,514³ 31,244 ³ 30,642³ 28,798 ³ 30,150³ ³MED NUM ³ 652,562 º 193,848³ 190,791 ³ 188,933³ 179,072 ³ 191,078³ ³LRG NUM ³ 1,394,165 º 521,876³ 503,549 ³ 496,659³ 466,637 ³ 497,158³ ³ ³ º ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͵ ³ ³ º ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ALREADY ³ 136,426 º 136,534³ 136,623 ³ 136,468³ 136,574 ³ 136,459³ ³COMPRESS³ º ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ º ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÊÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ; File PKZIP ARJ SQEEZ HAP LHA Type º 2.04g ³ 2.39d ³ 1.083 ³ 3.0 ³ 2.13 ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ ³SML MIXº 2.25 ³ 3.35³ 3.20 ³ 15.05³ 3.29 ³ ³MED MIXº 13.62 ³ 13.90³ 16.59 ³ 73.40³ 16.64 ³ ³LRG MIXº106.70 ³ 173.24³132.91 ³ 763.46³122.91 ³ ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍ͵ ³SML NUMº 3.40 ³ 10.65³ 10.32 ³ 67.58³ 9.89 ³ ³MED NUMº 14.17 ³ 36.70³ 38.46 ³ 150.65³ 40.54 ³ ³LRG NUMº 88.18 ³ 205.93³206.42 ³1063.46³211.81 ³ ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍ͵ ³ALREADY º 5.32 ³ 5.38³ 5.76 ³ 43.13³ 5.16 ³ ³COMPRESSº ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÊÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍ; MIX SQUEEZE won two awards, and HAP got one. Everyone was extrememly close in the race, although HAP continued to embarass itself time wise. HAP lugged the compression SEVEN times longer than any other program. PKZIP was definitely the fastest, and differed little in its superb compression. I thought the -EX switch would bring it to a crawl, but it clearly proved itself here! NUM HAP took all the awards by a huge margin. Yet again, at a cost. SQUEEZE came in second, and PKZIP last. ALREADY COMPRESSED LHA won, but most likely because the file was LHA'd before the test began. SQUEEZE came in second, but most of the archivers performed equally well. ÛÛÛÛÛÛ» ÛÛÛÛÛÛ» ÛÛ» ÛÛ» ÛÛÛ» ÛÛ» ÛÛÛÛÛÛ» ÛÛÛÛÛÛ» ÛÛÉÍÍÛÛ» ÛÛÉÍÍÍÛÛ» ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛÛÛ» ÛÛº ÛÛÉÍÍÛÛ» ÈÍÍÍÍÛÛ» ÛÛÛÛÛÛɼ ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛÉÛÛ» ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛÛÛÛɼ ÛÛÉÍÍÛÛ» ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛºÈÛÛ»ÛÛº ÛÛº ÛÛº ÈÍÍÍÛÛ» ÛÛº ÛÛº ÈÛÛÛÛÛÛɼ ÈÛÛÛÛÛÛɼ ÛÛº ÈÛÛÛÛº ÛÛÛÛÛÛɼ ÛÛÛÛÛÛɼ Èͼ Èͼ ÈÍÍÍÍͼ ÈÍÍÍÍͼ Èͼ ÈÍÍͼ ÈÍÍÍÍͼ ÈÍÍÍͼ I compressed an absolutely HUGE file (12 megabytes) that was created using ARC, and storing a two meg file five times. ARC, of course actually expanded the file to almost twelve meg. (I was really stretching my 210 meg hard drive...) The second test consisted of 100 font files from All Fonts program that were split up into small, medium and large chunks. For small, I used one font file. For medium, I used 9 font files (all starting with 'G') For large, I used all 100 fonts. Here are the results: File Original PKZIP ARJ SQUEEZE HAP LHA Type ³ Size º 2.04g ³ 2.39d ³ 1.08.3 ³ 3.0 ³ 2.13 ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ ³ HUGE ³11,612,491 º10,469,204³10,500,870³11,612,543³11,214,264³10,586,545³ ³ ³ º ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³SML FONT³ 66,160 º 14,394³ 14,481³ 14,386³ 15,862³ 14,353³ ³MED FONT³ 280,319 º 61,780³ 61,839³ 62,063³ 64,020³ 61,792³ ³LRG FONT³ 2,841,294 º 803,066³ 804,027³ 802,669³ 847,240³ 800,412³ ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÊÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ; The compression was timed using TYME 2.0 by Bob Eyer. Here are the results: File PKZIP ARJ SQEEZ HAP LHA Type º 2.04g ³ 2.39d ³ 1.083 ³ 3.0 ³ 2.13 ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ ³ HUGE º 415.98³ 355.16³ 51.04 ³3051.15³ 331.75³ ³ º ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³SML FONTº 5.65³ 12.03³ 3.40 ³ 4.89³ 2.80³ ³MED FONTº 11.53³ 36.37³ 10.38 ³ 25.05³ 9.28³ ³LRG FONTº 140.21³ 370.00³109.39 ³ 323.13³ 88.40³ ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÊÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍ; HUGE PKZIP won this award, followed by ARJ. The huge twelve meg. file was actually expanded by SQUEEZE. Notice that HAP took almost an HOUR to compress it. Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez! I went to Taco Bell, got a burrito, went to my girlfriend's house and played video games, and it STILL wasn't done! That's 7.5 times longer than the other competitors. FONTS LHA took the awards for fonts. It compressed them faster and tighter than anyone else (PKZIP won the MDFONT though). ARJ was the absolute slowest font compressor. ============= THE ULTIMATE SQUISHY SQUISHY ================================== I have received many letters stating "You didn't use the correct switch for the compressor!", and claimed that the compressor was capable of MUCH MORE than I was testing. For the ultimate SQUISHY SQUISHY, I used the ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM compression switches, and threw out the time variable. I didn't care if it took four hours, I wanted the absolute best compression. The following switches were used: PKZIP -ex ARJ a -jm -jt -jh16384 SQZ a /qì HAP a LHA a I then chose to compress the "ultimate CLIP ART, DOC and EXE files", from Word for Windows. ULT CLIP were 20 clip art files ULT DOC were all the DOC files in Winword ULT EXE was Winword.exe Here are the results: File Original PKZIP ARJ SQUEEZE HAP LHA Type ³ Size º 2.04g ³ 2.39d ³ 1.08.3 ³ 3.0 ³ 2.13 ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ ³ ³ º ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ULT CLIP³ 104,624 º 47,906 ³ 47,324 ³ 46,605 ³ 48,229 ³ 46,526 ³ ³ULT DOC³ 380,164 º 109,329 ³ 109,944 ³ 109,675 ³ 107,114 ³ 114,092 ³ ³ULT EXE³1,268,224 º 875,710 ³ 879,854 ³ 876,108 ³ 905,691 ³ 890,870 ³ ³ ³ º ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÊÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ; Everybody did about the same with clipart, but LHA won by a hair. HAP and PKZIP embarassed themselves here. With DOC files, HAP continues to remain untouched. Absolutely incredible, but there was a wait... PKZIP continues to compress executables the best (barely behind SQUEEZE). Everybody made a good showing with EXES. ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜ ÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÛÜÜ ÜÜÛ Û ÛÜÛ Û Û ÜÜÜÜÛ Û Û Û ÜÜÜ Û Û ÜÜÜÛÜ ÛÜÛ ÛÜÛ ÛÜÛ ÛÜÜÜÜÜÛ ÜÜÜ ÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜ ÜÜÜ ÜÜÜ ÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ Û ÛÜÛ Û ÛÜ ÜÛ Û ßÛÛ Û Û ßÛÛ Û Û ÜÜÜÜÛ Û ÜÜÜ Û Û ÜÜÜÜÛ Û ßÜß Û ÜÛ ÛÜ Û ÛÜß Û Û ÛÜß Û Û ÜÜÜÛÜ Û Ü ÜÜÛ ÛÜÜÜÜ Û ÛÜÛßÛÜÛ ÛÜÜÜÛ ÛÜÛßÛÜÛ ÛÜÛßÛÜÛ ÛÜÜÜÜÜÛ ÛÜÛÜÜÜÛ ÛÜÜÜÜÜÛ So who won? ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ* SPEED *ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ ³ ³ PKZIP 10 awards out of 22 ³ ³ LHA 10 awards out of 22 ³ ³ ARJ 1 award out of 22 ³ ³ SQUEEZE 1 award out of 22 ³ ³ ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ* COMPRESSON *ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ ³ ³ HAP 9 awards out of 23 ³ ³ PKZIP 5 awards out of 23 ³ ³ SQUEEZE 5 awards out of 23 ³ ³ LHA 4 awards out of 23 ³ ³ ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ PKZIP = This is great for speed, especially on mixtures of files, and large number of files. If you are in a hurry, use PKZIP. I used the -EX switch, which probably slowed it down a bit. If you just use PKZIP A, I am sure you'll find a big improvement on speed. For a general compressor with good speed, good squishing.... try PKZIP. It is also the most popular compressor on BBS' and with Shareware distributors. HAP = HAP was extremely slow, and made an idiot of itself with the HUGE twelve meg file. If you're in a hurry, don't use HAP. On the flipside, it's great for compressing text files. It beat the PANTS off everybody else! If you have a 486-50 or better and lots of text to compress, use HAP. It does not have damaged file recovery, so if you have a disk error, you're screwed. I think the Author got a little too excited about his program, though. He states in the FILE_ID.DIZ, "Compresses up to 30% better than the NEW Pkzip", which is definitely a false statement. SQUEEZE = This thing impressed me a LOT. It's fantastic for data, mixtures of files and large number of files. It's extremely slow, though. But lately, with 486-66 and the new 586 coming out, I'm sure you won't notice the difference. If you want damn good compression, try this out. It has absolutely no features though, so beware. A disk error will send you searching for a backup! ARJ = Great for features, but slow. The compression is average. There's a whole lot of ARJ supporters out there, and I understand why. If you have the time to read up on ARJ.DOC, you'll find a wealth of goodies. If you don't like PKZIP, and want a reliable, average compressor, use this. LHA = Extremely fast, but not so good compression. It compresses graphic files great, but chokes hard on single files, executables and general mixtures of files. ARC = No comment. It doesn't even compress a data file, no less rating 30-60% worse compression than everyone else. I sincerely hope this compression program falls by the side QUICKLY on major BBS's. ÖÄÒÄ¿ ÒÄÄ¿ ÖÄ¿ ÖÄÒÄ¿ ÄÒÄ ÖÄÄ¿ ÖÄÄ¿ ÖÄÒÄ¿ ÒÄÄ¿ ÖÄÒÄ¿ Ò Â ÖÄÄ¿ ÒÄÄ¿ ÖÄ¿ º ÇÄ ÓÄ¿ º º º ³ º Ä¿ º º ³ ÇÄ º ÇÄÄ´ º ³ º ³ ÓÄ¿ Ð ÐÄÄÙ ÓÄÄÙ Ð ÄÐÄ Ð Á ÓÄÄÙ Ð Ð Á ÐÄÄÙ Ð Ð Á ÓÄÄÙ ÐÄÄÙ ÓÄÄÙ All tests were done on a 386-40 with a Western Digital 210 meg hard drive using DOS 5.0 and a 64 built-in cache. I used DOS' himem.sys, and DOSKEY installed. To do the actual tests, I created a batch file consisting of: tyme pkzip -ex %1 %2 >1zip tyme arj a -e -jm %1 %2 >1arj tyme sqz a %1 %2 >1sqz tyme hap a %1 %2 >1hap tyme lha a %1 %2 >1lhz NOTE: ARJ users --> According to the Author's documentation, "ARJ a -e -jm" is supposed to be used for testing purposes. I quote: "The ARJ -jm compression is intended to demonstrate the best that ARJ can do ..." and then used: DO LGEXE C:\ND\ND.EXE, etc... This allowed me to time the programs, and eliminated a lot of unnecessary typing. All of the compression programs were in the current directory, and were downloaded from a local BBS. Timing done by: TYME 2.0 from Bob Eyer LARGE EXE FILE = TC.EXE from Turbo C++ 3.0 MEDIUM EXE FILE = SETUP.EXE from Windows 3.1 SMALL EXE FILE = USER.EXE from Windows 3.1 LARGE DATA FILE = EDAM20.DAT from Writer's Toolkit 2.0 MEDIUM DATA FILE = GR_AM.LEX from Word for Windows 2.0 SMALL DATA FILE = GRAMMAR.DLL from Word for Windows 2.0 LARGE DOC FILE = TCXL55.TXT from the CXL Library MEDIUM DOC FILE = ARJ.DOC from ARJ 2.39c SMALL DOC FILE = CLASSLIB.DOC from Turbo C++ 3.0 ==================== FINAL COMMENTS ========================================== WARNING: This is my opinion, so if you don't want to hear it, don't read it: Although SQEEZE did quite well in all the tests, it is not supported by many BBS', and does not have a lot of support. IE: If you have a damaged SQUEEZE or HAP file, you probably cannot recover any data from it. But PKZIP has PKZIPFIX.EXE, and would be able to recover something. The SQUEEZE file is also twice as large as PKZIP, and therefore would use more space on a hard drive. I am impressed at SQUEEZE and HAP's compression, but not its overall program. I am also impressed at ARJ's options (all 6 pages of options), but not its compression and speed. Overall, I probably will stick with PKZIP, just because of its reliability and speed. If I have a SQUEEZE file that loses a couple of bytes because of disk errors, then I am screwed. Hey, I also program in C++, and have some stuff available. Run the CATALOG.EXE file for details on ordering and what's new. 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