The new program donations which we receive will now be archived in the NEW
program account (DSK2:[100,121]) using AlphaArchive. In this way, programs
which require multiple files will now be bundled into one compressed .LIT
file. You simply need to download this one .LIT file to your system to use
the program. The .LIT archive file is like any other .LIT file on your system
in that it is an executable file. To dearchive the archived program, simply
type in the filename of the .LIT file at the dot and the archived files will
automatically be dearchived into the PPN you are currently logged into.
For example, GAME1.LIT is an archive of the ADVENTURE game. This game
consists of 6 files (including a couple of random files). You would simply
download the GAME1.LIT file to your system (this .LIT file will always be a
sequential file) and then type in GAME1 from the dot. At this point, the
six files will automatically be extracted from the archive into the PPN you
are currently logged into. The GAME1.LIT file will not be erased after this
process.
There is one situation to be careful of. If you had some program called
GAME1 loaded into memory or in the SYS: account, then THAT program would run
when you typed in GAME1 from the dot. Therefore, you should check to make
sure that you do not have a .LIT file with the same name on your system
before you dearchive the file. For example, you would type in
DIR ALL:[]GAME1.LIT to make sure that this file only existed in the account
you were logged into. If not, then you could rename the file to some other
name.
The NEW display (which is seen by typing NEW at the dot on the Network)
now includes an ARC heading which tells you whether or not a particular file
has been archived. In general, the archived file will have the same name as
the main program which is donated. You can use ARCV filename.LIT to see what
is "inside" an archived file. For example: ARCV GAME1.LIT
On small programs, the assembled or compiled version of the program will
also be included in the archive to compensate for the additional overhead of
archiving the file. However, in most cases, the archived file will be
considerably smaller than the original files. The ARCV program will also
show you the amount by which the files have been compressed.
Of course, if you do not wish to use the archived files, you can always
log to the "normal" account (like MUTIL, MXCALL, etc.) and download the
program donations from there. If you have any questions, contact JIM/US.
