Version Twenty Seven, Archive Comparison Table            [30 December 1995]
                                                          [ACT\COMMENTS.TXT]


Here are my comments while creating this test:


AR        This program will not accept wildcards, so archiving a whole
          directory is not so easy.

ARI       Very slow.

ARJ       v2.42c (BETA_4 TEST release), there is a slight dis-improvement in
          compression, and no real improvements in speed, just cosmetic
          changes, with some new features.

BSArc     I hope that I have used this program correctly, but the docs were
          in Russian.

CRUSH     Crush is not really an archiver, it's a bit like TAR, where is
          just stores all the files in one big file, and then lets another
          archiver do the work.  Looks like you don't have to use UUC.EXE &
          US.EXE now for UC2 useage with v1.8.

CODEC     v3.21 This is now quicker when compressing but slightly slower to
          decompress.  The compression switches -0 to -10, now give slightly
          different results than v3.10.

HA        Very slow.  But the latest beta version (v0.999b) is now even
          quicker when extracting.

IZIP386   This works much better and quicker if QEMM is not loaded.

JARCHIVE  Will not accept wildcards with directory paths.

LHARK     The option -c5 does not work, and always gives CRC errors on
          extraction.

LIMIT     v1.2, seems to be slightly quicker when compressing, but slower
          when extracting.

NULIB     This program will not accept wildcards, so archiving a whole
          directory is not so easy.

QUANTUM   Quantum really disagrees with QEMM, and would only work with QEMM
          unloaded.

QUARK     The version I have has an english interface but Russian docs.  Ok,
          but insists on keeeping some of the file path.

RAR       v1.55, this version, has improvements in speed, but again loses
          this advantage due to even worse compression results.

SAR       This does not like paths in the command line.

SARJ      This program which creates solid archives using ARJ, is on a par
          with CRUSH, using the maxim of 'tar before compress'.

SQWEZ     This program now creates .SQZ files as well as self-extracting
          files.  Please note that this version of SQWEZ can have its
          compression level altered, but you are unable to change this from
          the command line.

UC        This latest release (UC II r3 PRO) does have some minor
          compression improvements, and now seems to be slightly quicker to
          compress.  The new SuperOptimize options doesn't seem to give that
          much benefit for the time it takes and is not that consistent, but
          make sure you compress with -tst before using the SuperOptimizer.

X1        Very good, keep an eye out for the final release, should knock the
          spots of the other archivers.  X1 is getting better and better,
          and is going to be a headache for the other authors.  Now includes
          a manual.

YAC       The latest version (1.02) is the first non beta copy, and on my
          tests has a very small decrease on is overall performance.   Apart
          from that it is still a very competative product.