regular (aka bsd) compress distribution?

[Yves Arrouye <arrouye@marin.fdn.fr>]

Hello,

Is it impossible to distribute a real compress program? I know there
may be problems with an LZW patent, but I don't know how they relate
to the distribution of a compress program for say personal use.
  If this is possible I'll make a package for it.

If this is really impossible, would it be at least possible for the
gzip package *not* to provide a compress link (uncompress is okay
because gzip correctly uncompresses compress'ed files)? It is really
confusing to be able to run the compress command deep in an app. building
hierarchy and to see some time after that (in my case) the fonts file
that have been compressed by this compressed cannot be understood by X
(starting with mkfontdir).

If compress were not supplied, then one would notice that immediately,
and get one (for example GNU compress.tar.12 on GNU archives or the
one that is available on CTAN which in addition offer btoa, atob,
tarmail and untarmail) at his/her own risk.

Yves.


P.S.: to whom it may concern: there are problems on the list:

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