In a better timeline, ARC became the standard and Thom Henderson is still remembered as one of the greats.

In ours, the SEA v PKWARE drama won out and we're now using ZIP files. Proof that the real compression algorithm was capitalism all along.

@fribbledom Phil Katz bravely sacrificed his life for our freedom.

@fribbledom I don’t think it was just capitalism. ZIP’s many faults aside, it was the first big compression format to focus on a container format that encoded full directory structures and general file permissions without needing a separate container format (like tar) and in a way that was incremental (replace just one file relatively easily). Also why ZIP is winning all the file format wars today and even Word documents are ZIP files now.

@fribbledom What about ARJ? I used that a lot in my MS-DOS days.

@max

You're absolutely right here! But all of that came after the fact that Phil Katz lifted Henderson's work in the first place. Without SEA's ARC, its publicly available code, and the ideas Katz "borrowed", ZIP would never have existed.

That's not to say Henderson made no mistakes, but he deserved far more of the recognition that Katz ultimately received.

@LordCaramac

Indeed, it's been the default on many DOS and BBS systems for a hot minute in the 90s!

@fribbledom All the pirated games people put on the machines in the computer room at school were archived with ARJ back then. I got The Secret of Monkey Island, Leisure Suit Larry 3, and Space Quest IV from there.

@fribbledom Yeah, I can see that. Katz gets a lot more credit for the compression math side of the house despite standing on the shoulders of giants and maybe instead deserves more praise for the container format side of the house where ZIP’s true lasting genius was. Especially because it was the container format that helped it win more than anything to do with how well its compression was perceived.

@fribbledom ... I haven't thought about ARC files in ages.

@greyduck

You're welcome 🙈