China DOS Union

Sender: COMMAN (P.P), Forum: DOS
Subject: Comparison of Compression Tools
Posted: BBS Tsinghua Station (Sat Nov 8 12:09:08 1997)


The following are my views on compression tools

AIN is fast, has a high compression ratio, and is flexible to use, but has few functions. Its documentation is indicated by pointers, so once there is a bit of bad data in a document, all subsequent files are decompressed incorrectly. Also, according to classmates, I have seen a case of AIN decompression error once.

RAR has a good interface, moderate speed. There are two types of compressed documents. The Solid type is similar to AIN, has a high compression ratio but is easy to be damaged. The Normal type is similar to Arj, has a low compression ratio but is safe. Someone mentioned earlier that RAR all decompressed incorrectly because it used the Solid document (default). Using the Normal type can obtain a higher compression ratio and speed than ARJ.

PKZIP is the file I hate the most. It is very wordy. Although it is fast, it seems to have internal bugs. I have seen at least two compression errors. (Just take a look at the Ucdos 5.0 demo version to know)

ARJ is too old. It is extremely slow. Except that version 2.55 can support Win95 long filenames, there is almost nothing to recommend.

Winzip seems good, but I haven't studied it carefully. As for Lha, Zoo, Arc, Pak... it's better to forget about them!

I like Ain the most, followed by Rar, followed by Winzip...

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※ Source:·BBS Tsinghua Station bbs.net.tsinghua.edu.cn·

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As far as I know, among current compression software, winace 2.* has the highest compression ratio! winrar 3.* is second, and winzip is the lowest. What about wincab! It's hard to say. When winrar and winace don't have Solid hooked up, their compression ratio isn't as high as it. That is to say, when there are many files, winrar and winace have a high compression ratio. When it's a single file, wincab becomes the boss! (Because this is like Solid not being hooked up?) Also, the installation files of win98 are made in cab format, so when using cab compression packages, you can directly use EXTRACT.EXE in the boot disk to decompress, so you don't need other decompression software. Finally, winimg. Its compression ratio may not be higher than any of the above software. Also, it seems that no other software can unzip IMG format files. However, it has extremely amazing compression ratios when compressing word texts and jpg files. This is because winimg has carried out special optimizations for these two file formats! Also, because except for itself, no other software can unzip IMG format files. So the security of its self-extracting installation files and the anti-disassembly ability are much stronger!

The typical method is to write a batch file, and then generate a self-extracting file to automatically run this batch file after decompression. If you think it's not safe enough, then use winrar to generate a self-extracting file with an ico icon, and automatically run this exe file after self-extraction. This is more confusing!


Overall evaluation: wincab is the most recommended, then winace and winrar. If there are special requirements, use winimg. winzip is the lowest!

Who can talk in detail about executable file compression tools? Some have higher compression ratios.

CABARC.EXE is also quite good, it creates CAB format with a rather high compression ratio.

I now like the new winrar.

The compression ratio of executable files should be that UPX is the highest, WWPACK is next, then AIN's EXE compression tool. Next should be PKLITE and DIET, and the lowest are LZEXE and EXEPACK. Others I am not familiar with or have not used. PKLITE and DIET can compress COM files, and PKLITE 2 and above can compress WIN3X files. UPX can compress WIN9X files.

The following is a quote from mys on 2003-6-3 18:45:20:
Regarding the compression ratio of executable files, UPX should be the highest, followed by WWPACK, then the EXE compression tool of AIN. Next should be PKLITE and DIET, and the lowest are LZEXE and EXEPACK, others I am not familiar with or have not used.
PKLITE and DIET can compress COM files, PKLITE 2 and above can compress WIN3X files. UPX can compress WIN9X files.

Is APack the highest......

I tried with APack and UPX, and UPX is a bit higher. If APACK is higher, do I need to add other parameters?

aPack is sometimes higher than UPX. But the files compressed with aPack have a big BUG, just as I said last time.

For compressing data files, still use WinImp. It's version 1.21 now. If you want convenience, use RAR. Just throw away ZIP and never mention it again, forget about it.

I remember there was something called "ACB" under DOS, which seemed to have a very high compression ratio.

One of the main reasons I like CAB is that
CAB files can be opened anywhere,
without any decompression software.
Now there are really too many Win98 systems!