Zoo vs ARCA vs PKARC How does Zoo 1.20 compare with other fast archivers? The following tests were done to determine just how well Zoo compresses files and how quickly it performs. Three different sets of files were archived and extracted. The MS-Kermit 2.29 distribution contains both executable code and text files and is meant to serve as a "typical" case. The driver and four passes of Microsoft C version 3.0 contain only executable code and were used to test the archiving of binary files. Finally, a set of three text files was chosen to benchmark the archiving of pure text files. The test done in each case was as follows: All the files in a given set were archived. The final size of the archive (obtained from the DOS DIR command) was noted. Then the archive was extracted. The times for archiving and extraction were measured. When testing extraction speed of PKXARC and ARCE, the archive used for extraction was always the one that had been created by ARCA, since ARCA generates smaller archives than PKARC does. I. KERMIT 2.29 ARCHIVE The MS-Kermit 2.29 distribution used contained the following files, totalling 302,766 bytes: kerm229.exe 56,531 6-10-86 12:00p kermedt.doc 1,279 6-10-86 12:00p mskerm.doc 121,506 6-10-86 12:00p mskerm.hlp 8,928 6-10-86 12:00p msr229.upd 9,559 6-10-86 12:00p program archiving time final size of archive extraction time ------- --------- ---- ----- ---- -- ------- ---------- ---- Zoo 1.20 1 min 21 s 104,963 bytes 1 min 0 s ARCA 1.18 1 min 25 s 107,492 bytes PKARC 1.0 1 min 42 s 111,466 bytes ARCE 1.18 1 min 8 s PKXARC 2.5 0 min 57 s II. FIVE PASSES OF MICROSOFT C COMPILER 3.0 The Microsoft C compiler version 3.0 comprises five separate files totalling 317,178 bytes: msc.exe 27,100 2-18-85 1:16p p0.exe 32,182 2-21-85 3:12p p1.exe 74,770 2-21-85 3:27p p2.exe 113,714 2-21-85 3:16p p3.exe 69,412 2-14-85 5:37p program archiving time final size of archive extraction time ------- --------- ---- ----- ---- -- ------- ---------- ---- Zoo 1.20 2 min 42 s 236,275 bytes 1 min 39 s ARCA 1.18 2 min 40 s 237,742 bytes PKARC 1.0 3 min 30 s 260,118 bytes ARCE 1.18 1 min 58 s PKXARC 2.5 1 min 36 s III. TEXT FILES The following set of text files, totalling 339,480 bytes, was used. The file a86.doc was a concatenation of all the documentation files for the A86 assembler version 2.10. The file csrdoc.doc was from the C Spot Run Library, version 1.0. Finally, zoo.doc was the documentation for Zoo 1.10. a86.doc 170,496 8-23-86 5:45p csrdoc.doc 129,627 5-05-86 10:29p zoo.doc 39,357 8-24-86 1:03p program archiving time final size of archive extraction time ------- --------- ---- ----- ---- -- ------- ---------- ---- Zoo 1.20 1 min 55 s 142,183 bytes 1 min 20 s ARCA 1.18 2 min 7 s 147,977 bytes PKARC 1.0 2 min 7 s 151,445 bytes ARCE 1.18 1 min 35 s PKXARC 2.5 1 min 18 s RESULTS ARCHIVING SPEED. Zoo 1.20 and ARCA 1.18 were close together. PKARC 1.0 was also close in two tests but trailed far behind in the binary file benchmark. EXTRACTION SPEED. PKXARC 2.5 had a slight edge over Zoo 1.20. ARCE 1.18 was consistently the slowest. COMPRESSION. Zoo 1.20 was the clear winner here, consistently producing the smallest archive. -- Rahul Dhesi 1986/09/06