BootX and the Stuffit Fiasco.

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BootX and the Stuffit Fiasco.

In the Debian distribution, BootX is compressed with Aladdin's Stuffit 
application.

Since Apple includes a working copy of StuffitExpander on most of its OS 
cds, it is the de facto compression standard on the Macintosh Platform. 
If a Mac is still running, chances are there is a copy of Stuffit on the 
Hard Drive. Use FIND for Stuffit Expander. Stuffit can also access other 
compression formats such as zip, tar, uuencode  - if you installed the 
expander enhancer.

Unfortunately, the newest versions of Stuffit (5 & above) will create 
archives that cannot be opened by their elders. This has the unfortunate 
side effect of requiring elders & others to register with Aladdin Systems 
just so they may download the latest decompressor.


     MacOS 7.61 CD - I couldn't find StuffitExpander on this disc,
     yet its code is present in America Online v3.0.

     MacOS 8.1 CD has ver 4.02 of StuffitExpander. 
     But you have to run the internet access installer 
     and take both Netscape & Internet Explorer & more to get it. 
     (Has anyone tried tome-viewer to pull just Stuffit from this CD?)

     MacOS 8.5 CD has a ready to use copy of Stuffit ver4.5 buried deep. 
Use Find.

     MacOS 9 CD has a ready to use copy of Stuffit ver 5.14.
     Use the Find daemon to retrieve it.


I believe the Stuffit self-expanding archive format works across the 
majority of the MacOS spectrum. (much wider that DebianPPC) Is there a 
reason not to use that file format for the Debian PowerMac install items?

Thanks,
Layne