Since XP doesn't come with a RAR uncompress tool but it does work with ZIP files, I'm confused why some prefer RAR files over ZIP. There must be a reason that I'm not aware of. Linux perhaps?

Also, Getting 30 day licenses of rar decompression tools is getting tiresome. Is there a freeware version out there? I don't mind paying for software, but I'd rather invest in something more exciting (RAM, etc) unless it just becomes necessary. It'd be like paying for a web browser, imho. Unless its a browser that has something I can't get easily with my OS.

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Help stop the arsehole: http://ebaumsworldsucks.com/

WinRAR is free.

French Toast said:
WinRAR is free.

Ok, I'll check that one out. Still, any reason I should prefer rar over zip? Thanks.

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Help stop the arsehole: http://ebaumsworldsucks.com/

Rar is proprietary, if I recall correctly. This basically means that one company makes things that create and extract .rar files. Others can emulate this, but it's not guaranteed to work. Long story short, some people are unable to open rar archives if they don't have the same software that you're running. Zip is an open format, meaning that anyone can create a zipper/dezipper that should be pretty universal in the world of zip files.

Rar's have some decent features- they offer a clean way to chop-up the arcive into smaller chunks (ideal for sending large things over, say, email that only allows 2mb max upload size).

Rar files also have a higher coputational load in the processing of the compression, but as a result, they have the capability to compress things much better. Long story short, they make smaller files, but take a bit longer to do it.

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Shameless plug.

WinRAR is proprietary, yes - the format is defined by RarLab, and if
you want to create the archives, you have to use their software.

However, he's actually made the extraction software open source, which is nice.

Me, I like bzip2 (used by Valve themselves, actually) and 7-zip.

7-zip rocks.

If you want to know which compression is best: http://www.maximumcompression.com/

Paqar comes out very strong, but don't be deceived by its high scores: it's a command line tool, and sure, the compression is very good, but it takes hours to compress large files.

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

it sounds better when you say "rar" .i only use it cos i can.

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RAR compressed files to smaller sizes i think? anyone verify on this?
Also, RAR is a lot easier to use in my opinion. I like to say it is
easier.

WinRAR also lets unzip ZIP files and RAR files, so your covered both ways just incase you need to unzip a RAR.

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

yes i agree with ForceFlow

get 7-zip

I dunno about 7-zip, never used it, but

winrar > winzip

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Signature? What signature!?

I'm using 7-zip, which seems to do the trick at the moment.

Not sure I agree with French Toast that WinRAR is free. Their download page lists it as "trial".

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My site

Hello again all. :smile: 7-zip pwns. I prefer bz2 compression in zip format. The one thing is I'm not absolutely 100% sure those files can be unzipped successfully with winzip... or winrar (rawr) for that matter. I'll have to test that sometime soon.<br style="color: white;">

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o

i used to prefer winace over winrar and winzip. seems like they caught up on it in their newer versions though

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These words are my diaries screaming out loud

I've been using iZarc. It can handle most packing formats from .zip to .rar and tar.gz. For a complete list and the prog go to: http://www.izarc.org/

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''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

well, dunno if they fixed it, but when winRAR's trial ended, and you
open it, it pops up a little window saying that its over and says that
you either have to buy a liscence or remove it, but you can just close
that window and use it anyways

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Signature? What signature!?

Rar compresses a bit smaller than zip

Winrar will open Winzip files I believe but not the other way around so.... Who cares. Both are free.

WinZip opens Quake .pak files so Winzip wins. :heee:

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Winzip is more widely used so I'd go for that, though if compression is more of an issue than wide-spread useability, then I'd use rar. Not the best out there, but it's ok for me and still easy to use.

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

Let's do the test:

"Okay, I'll just zip it"

and

"Okay, I'll just rar it"

Conclusion:

Although zip feels more natural to say, it's a silly word and could be misunderstood. Rar all the way, okay ?

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

Forceflow said:
Conclusion:

Although zip feels more natural to say, it's a silly word and could be misunderstood. Rar all the way, okay ?

You know whats funny? I have used Winrar since long before the net and took more flack for trying to get people to use it than I ever did for XAT.

In fact, I had to specifically request its inclusion into the Snarkpit "accepted" file types way back when. :eek:

If I recall, I had a version for DOS too. PKZip and PKRaR I think they were way back in the day.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

pzunzipjr owns you.

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Shameless plug.

Monqui said:
pzunzipjr owns you.

Joke, or no joke, that sounds awfully familiar.

As I recall, there were two different zip proggy's to zip and unzip methinks back in DOS days.

Oh for the good old 5.0 days.

In fact, wasn't there a movie called "DOS days afternoon?"

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The best things in life, aren't things.

<span style="color: white;">I
still say 7-zip pwns all (that I've seen). It has the ability to
create: 7z; tar; tar.bz2; tar.gz; and zip formats (7z and zip have
several compression methods you can use). For finished maps I would
love to be able to use tar.bz2 (usually produces a little bit better
compression than everything else) but most </span><span style="color: white;">(all?) </span><span style="color: white;">places that host maps don't allow that format.</span>

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o

Baron, I was down in Belton for New Years. I waved at Dietz while I was there. Had I known, I'd have waved in your direction too.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

<span style="color: white;">Another time perhaps Orph :smile:

I figured out that the Windows compressed folder utility can only extract files from deflate32 zip archives, not deflate64 or bzip2 (what crap).
</span>

<div class="abouttext">Message submitted 1 minutes after original post:</b></div>
<span style="color: white;">But WinRawr can open all that tar.bz2 jazz too, so I'll use that whenever possible.
</span>

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o

People are ignoring my post... Makes me angry!

"IZArc is the ultimate archive
utility supports many archive
formats like: 7-ZIP, A, ACE,
ARC, ARJ, B64, BH, BIN, BZ2, BZA, C2D, CAB, CDI, CPIO, DEB, ENC, GCA, GZ, GZA,
HA, IMG, ISO, JAR, LHA, LIB, LZH, MDF, MBF, MIM, NRG, PAK, PDI, PK3, RAR, RPM,
TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TGZ, TZ, UUE, WAR, XXE, YZ1, Z, ZIP, ZOO. With a modern easy-to-use interface,

IZArc provides support for most compressed and encoded files, as
well as access to many powerful features and tools. It allows you to drag and drop files from and to Windows
Explorer, create and extract archives directly in Windows Explorer, create
multiple archives spanning disks, creating self-extracting archives, repair
damaged zip archives, converting from one
archive type to another, view and
write comments and many more. IZArc has also
build-in multilanguage support."-A direct quote from iZarcs homepage.

[edit] Oh and I'm mostly using zip <span style="color: lightblue;">since
most people are incapable of opening any other packed format... perhaps
due to some kind of malfunction in their brain department. During
the 90s I used mostly ARJ since everyone else seemed to use it too. I
don't know why people aren't using it so much anymore.</span>

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''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

Pvt.Scythe said:
People are ignoring my post... Makes me angry!

A kindred soul. My heart is now full and content. We now number 2, we shall prevail.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I use .zip's for smaller files, but usually .rar for big stuff. for example, if I'm making a backup file of all my zillion fonts to burn to dvd, I'm going to use winrar and make a rar file. better compression, and I like how winrar works. you can use it to make zip files, too, of course.

winrar also supports passwords and encryption... not sure if you can do that with zip files or just rar, but it comes in handy for sharing illicit files- if I upload a 5mb encrypted rar file to my webspace, who's to say if it's a game map or an mp3? Also nice for backing up your pr0n onto a cd or dvd labeled 'stuff' :wink:

Another thing- while windows smoothly opens most small zip files, I find that the in-OS unzipping gets bogged or even freezes if you try to open a zip that has say 20,000 small files in it coughROMScough. at the least there's no status info so you have no idea how long it's going to take and no option to pause etc.

Oh, and winrar can do some other nice batch processing things. For example, most console emulators can open roms that are zipped. Winrar can batch process an entire folder of files, putting each into its own zip or rar file. Very nice trick sometimes.

Buh. I need to get back to work on my Fortress Forever map :/

ps: hi Orph, you are back?

Jinx said:
ps: hi Orph, you are back?

Yeah, at least until I suffer another aneurysm perhaps.

Missed you bunches Jinxy

Just in case it has slipped past a few, I am not ungrateful to all who wished me well. Thanx to everyone.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Orpheus said:
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Pvt.Scythe</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>People are ignoring my post... Makes me angry!

A kindred soul. My heart is now full and content. We now number 2, we shall prevail.</div></div>
unanswered <-> ignored. sometimes there's just nothing to add or to object. doesnt mean it doesnt stick.

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These words are my diaries screaming out loud