Archiver ACE v. 1.2 released

Developer Marcel Lemke just released Archiver ACE version 1.2 and the zip was uploaded onto Hobbes: ace12a_good.zip (652.143k).


Features ACE supports the following major features: * good compression ratio at high speed using large dictionaries and solid archiving * fast extraction and updates * user interface to make archiving more comfortable * support of long filenames at WINDOWS 95 (tm) * ACE.EXE works with different languages; (English, German, Dutch ..) * interface includes a "second directory" as a target directory for operations * creation of multi-volume and self-extracting archives * two SFX-modules: SFXJR and SFXSR * supports RAR-, ZIP- and ARJ-archives * detects archives and shows them marked on screen * self-check in ACE.EXE to protect against virus-attacks * works under WIN_95 and DOS with nearly the same performance * processing of archives with many files (number depends on free memory) * encryption of archived files * addition of recovery records increases probability of full recovery of damaged archives * comments for archives and files

Required/recommended/known problems

ACE

* MS-DOS 3.0 or above * 80386 with at least 1.5Mb free memory to run the program * a temporary drive for its operations * to update solid archives with 1Mb dictionary there must be additional 2.9Mb free * enough space at the TEMP drive for temporary files and archives * an ega/vga-compatible video card recommended to get best speed and compression ratio: * 80586 (Pentium or compatible) * 10 Mb free memory * fast temporary drive * disk cache to minimize time spent accessing diskdrive (integrated in WIN_95) when using WIN_95: * no other running programs Using a 386-DOS-extender, ACE does not run under WINDOWS 3.xx without EMS or XMS. If you have any problems with that use the pif file "ace.pif" to start ace. Running ACE with QEMM v8.03 might cause rare system crashes. (caused by a bug in this version of QEMM) There might be also a problem with some programs like UMB_DRV which we could patch. To get a list of those problematically programs visit Harald Feldmann's site: http://www.xs4all.nl/~feldmann

The senior SFX-module or UNACE

* MS-DOS 3.0 or above * 8086 or higher * enough free EMS or XMS memory for the extraction of archives with dictionaries larger than 256K The junior SFX-module * MS-DOS 3.0 or above * 8086 or higher * 320k free memory The second directory ACE supports source-destination technique. The files of the current source directory/archive are listed on the left side of the screen. The destination directory, also called second directory, is mentioned at the bottom of the right side of the screen. To exchange the source for the destination you will have to press . The fastest way to set the destination equal to the source is .

File options

The options of the selected files can be changed by pressing . A menu will be opened with "Encrypt" and "Edit file comments". "Encrypt" lets you enter a password (if there is no general one). All selected files will be encrypted with this password. If a file is already encrypted, the old password will loose its validity. "Edit file comments" reads the comment of the first file in archive which is selected. You will be able to modify this comment before ACE writes it to all selected files. Archive options By pressing you will get a list with "Recreate", "Lock archive", "Edit main comment", "Add recovery record", "Add auth. verific." and "Add SFX-module". Take note of the following when using "Recreate": Recreate extracts all files of the current archive to the temporary directory. After extraction you might be asked whether it is okay to overwrite an existing archive (the one you just extracted from). If an error occurs during this stage, or if you cancel the process, the old archive will be gone. Do not panic! The extracted files in the temporary directory will not be deleted and the archiver will set the current directory to the temporary one. But you will have to rebuild the archive yourself. (You may use "add" for this). When recreating a multi-volume archive to a normal archive the volumes won't be deleted. You have to do this yourself. "Lock archive" provides protection against further modifications of the archive. No add of files, add of comments etc. will be allowed any more. "Edit main comment" reads the comment of the archive. You will have the possibility to modify the comment before it is written back to the archive. "Add SFX-module" - the archive will be made self-extracting; result is the same when pressing

Compression ratio, time and memory

There are several options that improve compression. Some affect the memory requirements, others affect the time needed to compress or update. "Solid archiving" takes advantage of the fact that all files in an archive can be viewed as one continuous stream of data. When updating (adding or deleting) such an archive, ACE needs to re-read all previously compressed data in order to maintain that continuous stream since any file added or removed will have to be, or has been, part of it. Solid archiving is therefore a more time consuming process than regular archiving. The benefit of solid archiving is stronger compression of your data. You should not use solid archives when a large archive requires frequent updates and time is an essential factor. Note that solid archiving does not slow down extraction of the whole archive when compared to non-solid archives. The best way to increase compression is to increase the dictionary size. This will also increase the memory requirements at compression and decompression. Please bear in mind that the full version of ACE requires a 386+ CPU and a 32-bit DPMI host. UNACE and the SFX module do not have this limitation. When uncompressing you will need enough memory to build the dictionary used during compression. That means if you used a 1024 Kb dictionary during compression, you will need this same dictionary during uncompression. Your target machine must be able to provide this much EMS or XMS memory. When using 256 Kb dictionaries, conventional memory may be enough. The limit of SFXSR for dictionary size in conventional memory is 512 Kb, but few machines will have enough free memory to accommodate this size. The dictionary size of SFXJR-archives is limited to 256K anyway. Compression level has no effect on memory use. It is an algorithm optimization and thus affects only time. The default compression level is a compromise between time and ratio. If there is a need for better compression, like compressing for use on the Internet, set the compression level to "good".

Encryption

You are able to encrypt archived files to protect your sensitive data against unauthorized access. This program does not use RSA so it may be distributed in the United States of America. Encryption can be added while compressing or afterwards. To encrypt files being added to an existing archive, set the password at the main screen, if you are creating a new archive, you may also set the password in the archive options window. To encrypt after compression, enter the archive and press . Choose "Encrypt" from the appearing file options window (see chapter 4.3.3.). Only the selected files will be encrypted. In order to process files in a solid archive, you need to enter the correct passwords for each of these files since they have to be ana- lyzed for processes. When adding to an archive the compression password will be set to the general password, which can be set at the main screen. The same applies to the decompression password during extraction. Changing the compression password in the archive option window or changing the decompression password at requests will not affect the general one. On the command line you can set the general password by using the "p"-switch. To protect against hackers passwords are not saved in archives or in the configuration file. You will have to keep them in your mind. The author of this program is not able to recover lost passwords! For security you should choose a long password which nobody except you knows or can find out. The program distinguishes between upper and lower case, the maximum length of a password is 56 characters.

Comments

There are two types of comments: the archive comment and the file comment. The archive comment is displayed during every extraction from the archive. The file comment, which is linked to a specific file in the archive, is only displayed when that file is being extracted. If you wish to use the content of a file as main comment: declare a "default comment file". This can be done at the main screen or at the commandline by using the "z"-switch (3.3. Switches). The file will be used as a main comment for each archive that will be created. Another way is to input the comment when creating a new archive. Set the option "Main comment" at the archive options (5. Archive creation: archive options). The file comments have to be added after the adding of the files. Use the file options window (4.3.3. FILE OPTIONS) or the "cf"-command to comment the selected files. The main comment can be modified later, too. See 4.3.4. Archive options and the "cm"-command (3.2. Commands). The maximum size of the comments is 32 Kb. Due to the screen resolution the maximum size of the comments entered manually is 4Kb. Multi-volume archives To span a large archive over several disks you will have to split the archive. The best way to do this is to create "multi-volume" archives. Handling multi-volume archives is nearly as easy as handling "normal" archives. A disadvantage of multi-volume archives is that ACE has no possibility to add to them. Once created the archive can't be modified.

The SFX-modules/UNACE

A self-extracting archive contains a small executable, called SFX-module. This makes extraction without an extra program possible. ACE provides two SFX-modules - a junior and a senior one. The junior SFX-module(SFXJR) is much smaller (3.9K) than the senior SFX-module (SFXSR) (23K). But is slower and provides dictionary sizes up to 256K only. ANSI-comments are not supported by the SFXJR, too. Since UNACE and the senior SFX-module are almost the same they have the same possibilities: * print of authenticity verification and ANSI-comments * use of EMS or XMS * decryption The SFX-modules do not expect any parameters. But optionally you can specify a destination to extract the files to. They will extract all files the self-extracting archive contains. Usage: [destination directory] [destination directory] UNACE handles all files, too. The only parameters UNACE expects is the command and an archive: Usage: UNACE [destination directory] where is one of: e Extract files l List archive t Test archive integrity v List archive (verbose) x Extract files with full path ACE is significantly faster than UNACE or the SFX-modules in decompressing large archives. Support of non-ACE archives Using the user interface of ACE you can enter RAR, ZIP and ARJ archives. You may use Extr(F2), Copy(extraction), View, Test, Delete, Repair and MkACE(Alt+F2) on these archives. MKACE generates a copy of these archives in ACE format, the originals will be kept. ACE uses the most popular programs to realize these operations. These are: RAR - RAR.EXE ZIP - PKZIP.EXE (TEST) PKUNZIP.EXE (COPY=extraction) PKZIPFIX.EXE (REPAIR) ARJ - ARJ.EXE These programs have to be in the same directory as ACE or the direc- tories have to be declared in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the PATH-variable (see your DOS-manual). The author of ACE recommends you use the latest versions of the other archivers when using ACE archives on non-ACE archives.

Support of long filenames (LFNs)

ACE can read long filenames (LFNs) when ran under Windows 95 only (not under pure DOS 7.00). It will display those names in the shell. You can adjust the list boundary between the filenames and filesizes to watch the longer names. ACE will also store those LFNs in archives. You should be careful when doing so. If you aim to extract files not under Windows 95 the filenames will have to be converted at extraction. This conversion is done by all programs send along with this package: ACE, UNACE, senior SFX-module and junior SFX-module.

Contact, support, information

Latest files, ACE-sources Registered users may contact the e-merge GmbH to get technical support: Phone: +49 (0)251 43000 Fax : +49 (0)251 43052 or via email: ace@emerge.de To get information via FAX call Erik Nebelung (Tysk-BBS) at +49-(0)3573-662640 For comments or to report bugs send email to: mlemke6413@aol.com via FIDO-netmail: 2:2432/344.4 or mail to: Marcel Lemke Ziegelstr. 2 15752 Prieros GERMANY For sources like the free UNACE sources or UNACE.DLL, links and other information on ACE take a look at: http://members.aol.com/mlemke6413/ace.html FIDO: You can also get help in the FIDO-echo PACKER.ACE.GER. If possible, write German please.

The latest version of ACE is available at: web sites:

http://members.aol.com/mlemke6413/ace.html http://www2.rz.hu-berlin.de/~h0444ovz/ace.html

http://www.xs4all.nl/~feldmann http://www.dnet.co.uk/users/snowcave

Supportbox; SysOp: Juergen Peters; Fido: 2:2432/344 Tysk BBS +49-(0)3573-662620; ACE ONLINE registration; SysOp: Erik Nebelung; Fido: 2:249/3050 For downloading ACE only, just enter "ACE" as the user name and the password at the login. Using this possibility you do not need input any personal data. Snow Cave BBS +44-(0)1662-247887; ACE ONLINE registration; SysOp: Steve Stacher; Fido: 2:443/888 (read REGISTER.DOC for more information).

About the author of ACE, by himself

" I am born in the year 1979 in Koenigs Wusterhausen, a town near Berlin (capital of Germany). I grew up in Prieros - a village not far from Koenigs Wusterhausen. In 1992 I left the primary school to attend the grammar school. Today there is my 13th school year (the last one) and my sets are mathematics and computer science. My interests are bicycling and other sports as well as reading. (and from time to time partying ;) ) Up from the 7th school year I learned Pascal from an older mathematician who used the computer to demonstrate interesting things a better way. Later I occupied myself with Assembler - in order to write my own fast graphic routines. At the same time I started experiments in data compression. So I programmed in two subjects in parallel: computer animations (3d texturing) and data compression. When I got to know that no one of my friends has enough engagement to push up a 3d game (or sth. similiar) and my compressor beat the other pupular archivers I decided to spend most of my time ACE. Especially for this I learned C. I also got some expierience in Visual Labs, Visual Basic and MS Access Basic. In expectation of the end of my school education I am looking for good offers regarding to professional training. Please contact me if you have those or know of other persons who have. Thank you!"
@Macarlo, Inc.
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