PeaZip v1.3 now with PAQ8 support!

[LovePimple]

PeaZip v1.3

This update introduces various mixed improvements over the previous version; most notably its now posible to add/update or delete objects into archive types supported through 7z binary.
PAQ8F and PAQ8JD support is added: its now possible to create, browse (flat view) and extract PAQ archives, bringing the benefit of the awesome PAQs compression ratio in the easy to use PeaZip graphic frontend.

PeaZip

[encode]

Cool! I like this program!

[Fallon]

It has improved. For it's 7-zip handling: on the one hand I would want peazip to show at least the same info in it's dropdownboxes as 7-Zip's filemanager -peazip only shows a default-. On the other hand the program can provide some remarkable extra info in it's 'job_definition.txt' and 'job_log.txt'. That's neat in a program that can put several algorithms at work (but it could do without the confirmation popup message on each succesful 'saving'. We already believe windows can save a file).

If the author adds a report on the resulting archive in that 'job_definition.txt' later, (compare the report option in WinRAR) then the species of data librarians could start to drool over peazip.

[LovePimple]

What do you think BF?

[Black_Fox]

Well, at first I didn't know how to trigger compression, but from that moment on I found only positive news. It is very good to see PAQs in widely used program - I think it would be nice to see already processed part of the file (as paq8jd itself displays each 4kB). Its time statistics are also something to be happy (and drool) about! Who knows, maybe in the future some version of TC or quad will appear on list of possible programs

[LovePimple]

Thanks for the feedback BF!

Does anyone think that it would be a good idea to add UHARC support to PeaZip?

[giorgiotani]

Hi, thank you a lot for the interest and the comments about PeaZip!

@Fallon
I choose to keep separated job_definition and job_log information because job definition may contain password (if encryption is used) so it should be handled with more care than job log information; another reason is that it's a little simpler to understand how to use job definition information if it's not mixed to other content, basically a Windows user, in example, could just rename it in .bat, truning it in a full functional script (I know for advanced uer it's a less than meaningful issue since he/she will just open the file and copy/paste the command line).
The confirmation popup (when using console interface for applications) was initially intened to be optional, but then I really liked it since I could launch many very long jobs at once and then, when I come back, see exit codes for each one... so I forgot to make it optional! But however what you suggest is a good idea and I think I'll add an option to turn off the popup in next version of the software.

@Black_Fox
Unfortunately for the moment I designed the graphic wrapper around back-end applications as monothread so I cannot display pipe output until the application (in this case PAQ*) has ended. However, in "Default options" you can set 7z and PAQ* to use native console based interface, so you will see the native progress indicator of each application.

@LovePimple thank you for have suggested to me this very interesting forum; about UHARC unfortunately I don't know if I may redistribute it in PeaZip like I do with 7z and PAQ*, that is a key requisite for including it, the license state it's free for non commercial use and I really don't know how it's intended to be redistributed by third parts. Moreover it's not open source and I was not able to find a Linux version, so I would have to let it unsupported in Linux version of PeaZip, that would not be very elegant.
However, despising those issues that prevented me to consider UHARC support in peaZip before, I'll try to get more information and to conduce more tests on this that seem to be a very interesting and promising format.

[LovePimple]

thank you for have suggested to me this very interesting forum;

Thanks! Good to have you on board!

about UHARC unfortunately I dont know if I may redistribute it in PeaZip like I do with 7z and PAQ*, that is a key requisite for including it, the license state its free for non commercial use and I really dont know how its intended to be redistributed by third parts. Moreover its not open source and I was not able to find a Linux version, so I would have to let it unsupported in Linux version of PeaZip, that would not be very elegant.
However, despising those issues that prevented me to consider UHARC support in peaZip before, Ill try to get more information and to conduce more tests on this that seem to be a very interesting and promising format.

Thanks for the feedback Giorgio! I can only hope that UHARC support will be possible sometime in the future.

[Black_Fox]

Does anyone think that it would be a good idea to add UHARC support to PeaZip?

Yes! But its really a problem because of Linux support...

However, in "Default options" you can set 7z and PAQ* to use native console based interface, so you will see the native progress indicator of each application.

Thanks
Regarding UHARC, there seems to be no Linux versions at all... if youre going to add at least partial support for UHA archives, there is UNUHARC utility, which is freeware for any use (only dos/win binary as well as uharc though).

[LovePimple]

Yes! But its really a problem because of Linux support...

I hope that this will not be too much of a problem!

Regarding UHARC, there seems to be no Linux versions at all...

I wonder why!

[LovePimple]

Would anyone like to see any other changes made to PeaZip?

[giorgiotani]

I think suggestions are very important to better focus program's development, so any hint is welcome!
I published a page http://peazip.sourceforge.net/development.html containing notes for developers/usres interested in the project, which also discusses issues users may notice while using PeaZip.
I think that kind of information can be useful to understand better what is behind the curtains in a software and what and why some problems can be experienced.

[LovePimple]

Could you please make it so we can choose exactly which files are associated with PeaZip at the "Options" menu. I would also like to be able to change this at any time as it is with other archivers such as 7-zip, WinRAR, WinZip etc.

Would this be possible for the next version?

[giorgiotani]

Could you please make it so we can choose exactly which files are associated with PeaZip at the "Options" menu. I would also like to be able to change this at any time as it is with other archivers such as 7-zip, WinRAR, WinZip etc.

It would be an interesting feature for Windows users.
Actually file association is preformed by the InnoSetup installer script, which uses a Pascal dialect quite close to FreePascal, so I think I could do in the program almost the same things Im presently saying to do to the installer script.
Ill check about that for next version of PeaZip and keep you informed about progresses!

[LovePimple]

Thank you!

[LovePimple]

Is there any reason why we shouldn't use Johan De Bock's Intel 9 compile of PAQ8jd with PeaZip?

[giorgiotani]

Is there any reason why we shouldnt use Johan De Bocks Intel 9 compile of PAQ8jd with PeaZip?

Hi, I just tested it and it works fine in PeaZip!
You can just rename De Bocks executables in paq8f.exe and paq8jd.exe and copy them in PeaZip
espaq directory, replacing the previous executables with the same name.
Syntax is the same and I didnt find any advice of different behaviours on Mahoneys site, which confirm my first positive tests (and probably in Pea 1.4 Ill include those new executables, or newer if available at the date).

[LovePimple]

Johan de Bock Intel compile of PAQ8F does not accept wildcards. Won't this be a problem for PeaZip?

[giorgiotani]

Johan de Bock Intel compile of PAQ8F does not accept wildcards. Wont this be a problem for PeaZip?

Sorry, this morning I tested wowtigers binaries, not De Bocks ones!
I posted before drinking my mornings coffe...
However, for the present version of PeaZip it doesnt represent a big problem, since PeaZip will compose the command line always using full filenames.
You could virtually use any PAQ binary respecting the PAQ8F command line syntax, of course PeaZip expects the executable to be named either paq8f or paq8jd, so you will need to rename the executable in this way.
Wildcards should never be used unless something goes wrong in character conversion (so even executables dont accepting wildcards could be used); however about that isue you can see UTF-8 encoding note in development page on projects website, pointing to a more exaustive page about state of UTF-8 support in Lazaus IDE.

[LovePimple]

Sorry, this morning I tested wowtigers binaries, not De Bocks ones!

The wowtiger binaries dont work (no SSE2) on my PC.

However, for the present version of PeaZip it doesnt represent a big problem, since PeaZip will compose the command line always using full filenames.
You could virtually use any PAQ binary respecting the PAQ8F command line syntax, of course PeaZip expects the executable to be named either paq8f or paq8jd, so you will need to rename the executable in this way.
Wildcards should never be used unless something goes wrong in character conversion (so even executables dont accepting wildcards could be used); however about that isue you can see UTF-8 encoding note in development page on projects website, pointing to a more exaustive page about state of UTF-8 support in Lazaus IDE.

Thanks! I will do some tests.

[LovePimple]

The Johan de Bock compile of PAQ8F has worked perfectly with PeaZip in all of my tests.

BTW: Ilia has suggested that the Quad engine could be added to a future version of PeaZip. What do you think about the idea of adding the Quad or TC engine to PeaZip?

I would much prefer the awesome power of the TC engine added to Peazip!

[giorgiotani]

BTW: Ilia has suggested that the Quad engine could be added to a future version of PeaZip. What do you think about the idea of adding the Quad or TC engine to PeaZip?

They seem promising; I would be pleased to add support to them in PeaZip in future (the list of suggestion for PeaZip is getting longer day by day... and its very positive).
I tested and downloaded latest version of TC and Quad, but I was not able to find copyright notice and if it does exist a Linux version of it. Could you kindly tell me more on that two topics?

[encode]

but I was not able to find copyright notice

Quad copyright (c) 2006-2007 Ilia Muraviev
TC copyright (c) 2004-2007 Ilia Muraviev

These programs distributed as FREE software (GNU GPL like license).
In other words:
+ This software is a free of charge of any kind and can be used by anyone and for any reason, including commercial use (However, you cannot sale this software)
+ This software must be distributed in unchanged form
+ And finally, THIS IS FREE SOFTWARE WITH NO WARRANTY

(Probably, I should add this text to README)

However, wait some time until I finish working on programs – so they will be backwards compatible. I hope, work on Quad after a couple of month of testing will be finished!

and if it does exist a Linux version of it

If needed, I can compile any program for Linux (i386). And again, I think I must finish working first.

[giorgiotani]

Hi, thank you for the answer!
I think license terms are fit for redistribution of unchanged executables only in PeaZip (in /res, like 7z and paq executables), being PeaZip a free and open source (LGPL) program.

However, wait some time until I finish working on programs – so they will be backwards compatible. I hope, work on Quad after a couple of month of testing will be finished!

I agree with this, Ill check for Quad and TC in future to stay informed about development of those interesting compressors. Thank you for your work!

[LovePimple]

Hi, thank you for the answer!
I think license terms are fit for redistribution of unchanged executables only in PeaZip (in /res, like 7z and paq executables), being PeaZip a free and open source (LGPL) program.

Unlike PAQ8F/JD and 7-Zip, Quad and TC are only single file compressors. How will you add compression of multiple files/folders for these compressors if they are added to PeaZip as "unchanged executables" only ?

[encode]

Unlike PAQ8F/JD and 7-Zip, Quad and TC are only single file compressors. How will you add compression of multiple files/folders for these compressors if they are added to PeaZip?

PeaZip already supports TAR.GZ/TAR archives, so TAR.QUAD ones is the solution!

[LovePimple]

PeaZip already supports TAR.GZ/TAR archives, so TAR.QUAD ones is the solution!

This would be acceptable as long as the .tar.quad were done automatically by the archiver as a single operation.

[giorgiotani]

Yes, adding support to single file compressors I would follow what I'm actually doing with BZip2 and Gz compression, allowing a single file at time, which could, of course, be a previously created tar containing multiple files and dirs.
In future versions I think I'll also hint the users to do so, or even better I'm also considering about to add a checkbox "TAR before" to all formats (tar excluded...) in order to create a tar whith all selected objects and then send it to whatever format is selected (7z, paq, bz, gz...); I think it would be a nice features for making more usable single file compressors, and also an handy feature for Linux users which often uses .tar.something rather than .zip or .7z archives.

[LovePimple]

TAR before" to all formats (tar excluded...) in order to create a tar whith all selected objects and then send it to whatever format is selected (7z, paq, bz, gz...);

I like this idea! But as something like "TAR before" for single file compressors ONLY.

I would like to see one of the really high speed compressors (lzop, quicklz, etc) added to PeaZip like this.

[giorgiotani]

I

I like this idea! But as something like "TAR before" for single file compressors ONLY.

I also started with this idea, but I tended to shift toward allowing it for all formats.
In this way using the option would be something like creating a solid archive (first archive, then compress) but replacing the native metainformation of the selected format (7z, zip, paq, pea...) with tar ones, hich would be very welcome in Unix environments because tar format metainformation about object are a long time estabilished standard for that enviroment and other software and scripts which exists for it.
However, the defaults of that options will need be quite flexible, i.e. I was thinking to check it by default only when using a single file compressor *and* having multiple files in list, while leave it unchecked by default when using archiving formats (or when a single file is in input list).
I think this pattern would be fit for most users needs (most Windows users using 7z or zip barely noticing this unchecked option, users using single compressors barely noticing that this options activate while compressing multiple objects), but allowing in any moment advanced users / users performing uncommon tasks to activate/deactivate the option at need for any format.

I would like to see one of the really high speed compressors (lzop, quicklz, etc) added to PeaZip like this.

In 1.1 I tweaked zip/gz fast and fastest settings in order to gain some speed over 7zip default configuration; however the deflate algorithm in 7z is slower and more powerful than the one in similar programs so I still have quite slow but powerful compression even with fastest settings... so fast compression is an area where PeaZip still need improvements!
Thank you for your hints!