Re: Need IIe, IIgs MIDI software

[pausch@saaf.se (Paul Schlyter)]

In article <11j1snk1rou8pea@corp.supernews.com>, Mitch Monger  <m@m.com> wrote:
>Michael J. Mahon wrote:
>> jbooth replied:
>
>>>ZIP them and it seems to fix all problems.
>
>> I was under the impression that .zip files presented
>> some issues for Mac users.
>> 
>> Has that been "fixed"?
>> 
>> It would be great if all platforms agreed on an archive
>> format, though that would, of course, leave out older
>> platforms (like the Apple II, for which .zip support is
>> pretty bad).
>
>.Zip works on all Macs nowadays because they come loaded with 
>Stuffit Expander.

I suppose you mean "all modern Macs" rather than "all Macs nowadays".
If zip files didn't work on old Macs earlier, they'll probably not
work on old MAcs nowadays either.

>It still seems like that icky PC format to me.

It is - it originated in the PC world.

Perhaps you should try the tar format instead?  Tar files originated
in the Unix world and is a little better suited for the Unix
file system -- and since Mac introduced OS-X it runs on a Unix-like
file system.  So try tar files if you don't like zip files.  Yes,
tar is uncompressed so you'll probably want to run e.g. gzip on them
to compress them (gzip and zip files are not quite the same - in
particular a gzip file can only contain one single compressed file -
usually it's a tar file).

>But Macs are going Intel and giving up FireWire for USB. Maybe 
>they will move to .zip as well. I can't see the harm in it (for 
>newer computers).

...like they earlier gave up GCR for MFM, and SCSI for IDE ....

It's a matter of cost.  It is expensive to stick to non-standard
solutions in the long run.  And earlier, one common (and valid!)
critiscism of the Mac was that it's too expensive.



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