Tain and .7z

[Point]

I was told the auto plug finder isn't able to find .7z files on the tain... can this be fixed?

[Myrd]

Plugin archives should use .zip because not all platforms supported by Myth can open .7z (hint: Mac OS 9 can't.)

[Eddaweaver]

I agree they should be available in Zip.

But I think The Tain should allow a 7z download link in addition to Zip for the largest files.

zffapackfinalv3 = 348mb

...with standard zip deflate compression = 157mb

...with best zip deflate compression = 153mb

...with best LZMA 7z compression = 121mb

[Point]

.7z file is 174 meg .zip its 256 meg. so you guys won me over to 7z's though I understand if some operating systems can't do it...

hopefully ill be able to migrate the zip file over from the tain because where im at now on satellite its gonna be a 14hr+ upload and I'm bound to be kicked off a few times...

[Eddaweaver]

You do know that bandwidth can be extremely expensive for many satellite internet connections?

The compression ratio is about 2% worse if you use the "normal" 7zip settings for LZMA instead of the best.
The word size setting needs to be increased to the maximum even after selecting "Ultra". It makes compressing slower but does make a difference.

Don't use PPMd and LZMA2. They make a 1% improvement but PPMd has severe decompression RAM requirements and LZMA2 has compatibility problems.

This website may be of some use to anybody using Mac OS Classic.

[Myrd]

(We would also need code on The Tain side to index 7z archives which someone would have to write.)

[vinylrake]

You do know that bandwidth can be extremely expensive for many satellite internet connections?...This website may be of some use to anybody using Mac OS Classic.

as a last resort, that's a nifty site for a OS 9 person stuck with a 7z file and no other computer. but if the impetus for using 7z is better compression to save bandwidth that's probably going to be worse. instead of downloading a zip file from the tain and then decompressing it on your computer (locally), you'd have to download the 7z from the tain, and then reupload it to the site to decompress. since you are transmitting the file twice - your zip would need to be over 50% smaller before you would get any reduced bandwidth/expense.

[Eddaweaver]

I was not advocating 7z replace Zip on The Tain. I mentioned the cost of satellite bandwidth because Point is on it and it can easily cost as much as US$15/ GB (in case he didn't realise that).

[Myrd]

Understood.

I would be totally supportive of someone adding an option to download a .7z from The Tain. The workflow would be that the original upload would still be a zip file that the Tain would index, but would also (on the server side) create a second .7z file from the zip file and provide UI to download using 7z.

If someone were to implement that, I'd have no objections.