What format next? December 2009

spwolf

I am writing an blog entry where you will be able to select what format you want next to be added in PA.

Need a list of suggestions to be added.

Some suggested so far are:

7zip LZMA2
ISO (UDF, not supported now)
MSI
EPUB (variant of zip format for publishing books)
…. more?

Add your suggestions as soon as you can. We will make an blog post about it and you will be able to vote.

p.s. everyone with forum account can automatically comment and vote on blogs, it is all integrated!

spwolf

Required for possting suggestion is that there is an thread with better explanation on forums, and you can refference it here…. if there is no thread for format you want, create it and then refference it here!

thanks!

TBGBe

Is there any restriction for implementation or can we request full (both extraction and compression) support?
…
(waits for multiple RAR compression requests).

spwolf

extraction first…

spwolf

i wont bite i promise ;-)

TBGBe

Sorry, mis-read your post and was waiting for blog before voting.

Seems you want additional suggestions for your blog so:-

SQX (but NOT without recovery record support :p )
NRG (disk format)

spwolf

need more suggestions before we select what will be votable ;-)

guido

“keep broken files” on rar.

spwolf

thats the spirit ;-)

infimum

Simple binary splits with extensions 001, 002, etc. Only joining is fine.

I know it’s not an archive, but 7-zip can join them, so why not.

guido

@infimum:

Simple binary splits with extensions 001, 002, etc. Only joining is fine.

I know it’s not an archive, but 7-zip can join them, so why not.

you mean HJSplit? If so, a +1 for me.

infimum

@guido:

you mean HJSplit? If so, a +1 for me.

That seems to be the most popular “graphical” tool. The good old DOS command is as follows:

Copy fileA+fileB fileC
```This joins fileA and fileB to create fileC.

spwolf

peachy! more, more!

spwolf

so far:

7zip LZMA2
ISO (UDF, not supported now)
MSI
“keep broken files” on rar.
Join split files (ie HJ Split)

spwolf

@TBGBe:

Sorry, mis-read your post and was waiting for blog before voting.

Seems you want additional suggestions for your blog so:-

SQX (but NOT without recovery record support :p )
NRG (disk format)

vetoed SQX, as to the NRG, they are not supported right now? Or is there something new now?

guido

faster extraction of .IMG files

gate1975mlm

@guido:

you mean HJSplit? If so, a +1 for me.

O man that would be great if PowerArchiver could do what “HJSplit” does!! :)

Also “Keep Broken Files” for RAR would kick ass!

Please add both of these options soon!!!

gate1975mlm

Option to remove PowerArchiver right click context menus from the Start Menu and All Programs menu!!

gate1975mlm

And my number 1 request is just too make everything about PowerArchiver FASTER!!!

spwolf

i will let you self moderate above two posts - this is the thread about specific issue - what format next in PA. This is not mother of all threads about PA. If you have additional wish, post it in its own thread but first look for other similar threads (both above already have them).

twphoenix

@spwolf:

vetoed SQX,…

Hello, because you vetoed SQX. I’d like to know why. I know i can add this Format via the TotalSQX plugin. But native i think would be better because you could also Implement the Compression in this Format (later) easyly. Or if you don’t want to add this format directly you could in one of the next versions extend the Plugin-Interface to allow the creation via the Plugin (witch the plugin allows). you just had to create a button were you could configure the settings.

Best Regards,

TWPhoenix
aka
R. Landscheidt

spwolf

@twphoenix:

Hello, because you vetoed SQX. I’d like to know why. I know i can add this Format via the TotalSQX plugin. But native i think would be better because you could also Implement the Compression in this Format (later) easyly. Or if you don’t want to add this format directly you could in one of the next versions extend the Plugin-Interface to allow the creation via the Plugin (witch the plugin allows). you just had to create a button were you could configure the settings.

Best Regards,

TWPhoenix
aka
R. Landscheidt

we are extending the plugin interface in one of the future versions ;-).

twphoenix

@spwolf:

we are extending the plugin interface in one of the future versions ;-).

Hello, thanks thats good to know. so i wait paitient for this update an compress my Files in SQX with the last Squeez Version or with WinRAR as RAR for sending per E-Mail. Because i really really like the Recovery Records and the Digital Signed Archives (especially for e-mail transfer) Or Wait for 7zip to implement these features. ;-)

Best Regards,

TWPhoenix
aka
R. Landscheidt
–-------------------
-Windows 7 pro
-Powerarchiver 11.61 Pro
-SpeedCommander 13
-Squeez 5.63
-WinRAR 3.91

infimum

Is Squeez discontinued? I can’t find its page.

moles42

@infimum:

Is Squeez discontinued? I can’t find its page.

you referring to this ?…

http://squeez.en.softonic.com/download

infimum

No, SpeedProject homepage.
http://www.speedproject.de/enu/index.html

moles42

sorry…my mistake…:(

twphoenix

@infimum:

Is Squeez discontinued? I can’t find its page.

Yes. Sadly. Here are some infos:
http://blog.speedproject.de/2009/08/22/ein-teufelskreis/ (German Only - Sorry i found only Information Availible in German)

But you can still download the Latest Version via the Update Page (http://www.speedproject.de/support/updates.html).
But you can’t buy the codes for this anymore.

But the Compression Engines are also in SpeedCommander.
So you can still use the SQX Compression and the Other Compression Formats.

Best Regards,

TWPhoenix
aka
R. Landscheidt
–---------------------
-Windows 7 Pro
-Powerarchiver 11.61 Pro
-SpeedCommander 13
-Squeez 5.63
-WinRAR 3.91

davidsplash

I would like to see 7zip support put as a command line plugin so it is always up to date with the latest 7zip specification some other archivers do this why not powerarchiver

spwolf

@davidsplash:

I would like to see 7zip support put as a command line plugin so it is always up to date with the latest 7zip specification some other archivers do this why not powerarchiver

you want 7zip to be command line? That makes no sense… we dont have support for lzma2 yet, because it is not in its finalized form. We can not offer it before Igor tells us it is safe to do so.

davidsplash

it makes sense to have it commandline so we can choose and test the beta version of 7zip from within powerarchiver.

Means a lot less work for you and gives you more time to add other features.

waiting for something to become final leaves you behind the competitors who have a command line 7zip add in

infimum

@davidsplash:

it makes sense to have it commandline so we can choose and test the beta version of 7zip from within powerarchiver.

What’s the difference between this and directly using the 7-zip command line?

waiting for something to become final leaves you behind the competitors who have a command line 7zip add in

What are those competitors? Maybe this will help us understand what you are talking about.

spwolf

@infimum:

What’s the difference between this and directly using the 7-zip command line?

What are those competitors? Maybe this will help us understand what you are talking about.

i would guess that competitors are those who dont know how to build their own dll interface so they have to use command line ;-).

regardless, it is not something for PA, we are not experimental compression application.

Serhiy

NSIS, InnoSetup extraction?

Vote for .msi

Happy Holidays!

spwolf

sretni blagdani serhiy!

Serhiy

Sretni Blagdani Drazen!

amh209

Since I don’t speak Croatian (guessing it is Croatian), I will just say happy holidays!

fiery

I vote for the EPUB format.

It’s already implemented in PA, but there is no explorer command to open the archive. Also, I need to arrange the files inside the EPUB/ZIP archive. This is important for the epub verification. Reference thread: http://www.powerarchiver.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4326

ronm440

How about being able to mount a vhd?

jasons

The three most important formats for Microsoft-centric system administrators should be added post-haste (IMHO):

ISO
WIM
VHD

Note (for all those suggesting) MSIs, they are not a compression or archive format. MSIs can contain CABs in alternate streams, but the MSI itself is a well-documented, self-contained format that in and of itself does not contain other files.

davidsplash

par file format well worth it

davidsplash

its open source now

http://arj.sourceforge.net/

davidsplash

jar from arj software it compresses better than 7zip

davidsplash

zzip

http://damiendebin.net/archives/zzip/index.php

davidsplash

isn’t it posible via plugins to add more archive formats?

wouldn’t it be an idea to have new formats as plugins. this way as in the case of the 7zip can be updfated with the developement of the format.

TBGBe

@davidsplash:

zzip

http://damiendebin.net/archives/zzip/index.php

Err … not exactly an up to date format

Current release of Zzip / Zzlib is 0.36c, 04-Jun-2001

We don’t want to add formats just because they exist(ed).

Rodney R

SQX (but NOT without recovery record support )
NRG (disk format)

davidsplash

par file format

Innuendo

Par isn’t really an archive format though. It’s more of a checksum/repair format and probably outside the realm of PowerArchiver.

Of course, SPWolf may disagree with me.

spwolf

@Innuendo:

Par isn’t really an archive format though. It’s more of a checksum/repair format and probably outside the realm of PowerArchiver.

Of course, SPWolf may disagree with me.

nothing is outside the realm of PA ;-)… but PAR had good tools from the start, and i am not sure what could PA do better there… never say never though, it is just that our development time is limited.

bsiegel

I was going to ask for support for .xap (silverlight archive) but I realized that as more and more filetypes become simply some data stuffed in a zip, it would be great to add zip sniffing (sort of like how PA checks EXE to see if they are self-extracting archives). When you right-click a file, PA could do a very quick check of the magic bytes to see if it is a zip file, and if so it would operate exactly like .zip. No need to add support separately for .jar, .epub, .cbz, .xap, .docx, .odf, .woff, etc. And these formats don’t usually get associated with an archiver anyway - they have their own programs they are associated with. It would just be nice if PowerArchiver knew it could unpack them.

–Brandon

spwolf

@bsiegel:

I was going to ask for support for .xap (silverlight archive) but I realized that as more and more filetypes become simply some data stuffed in a zip, it would be great to add zip sniffing (sort of like how PA checks EXE to see if they are self-extracting archives). When you right-click a file, PA could do a very quick check of the magic bytes to see if it is a zip file, and if so it would operate exactly like .zip. No need to add support separately for .jar, .epub, .cbz, .xap, .docx, .odf, .woff, etc. And these formats don’t usually get associated with an archiver anyway - they have their own programs they are associated with. It would just be nice if PowerArchiver knew it could unpack them.

–Brandon

there were some issues with that as more and more people modified zip format… we had it before as default for every format.

BrollyLSSJ

I just saw your thread for adding more archives. Would it be possible for you to add INNO Setup and Nullsoft Scriptable Install System to PowerArchiver to be able to extract them directly? I know that 7zip can unpack INNO Setup and they mentioned on their site, that it can unpack NSIS aswell. Maybe you can take a general at both 7zip and IZArc for the supported file types and see if you can add support for the missing ones:

IZArc is the best freeware archive utility supporting 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.

Supported formats:
Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR
Unpacking only: ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, DMG, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MSI, NSIS, RAR, RPM, UDF, WIM, XAR and Z.

davidsplash

I have tested a command line version of 7zip and it works ok. I would say you could make one thats say beta so people can have the option.

davidsplash

if paowerarchiver started using its plugin system more then all formats can be supported. Its possible to use someone esles commandline tool with powerarchivers plugin system.

davidsplash

how about an add on that we pay for that can create rar files so we can add and extract rar files. To get around the licencing thing we pay a small fee to rarlabs for this privalege.

One interface small extra cost but worth it.

rarlabs would be up for this.

Serhiy

David, why not to buy Winrar with full support for rar archives (incl. authenticity verification, etc) if you need it so much and are ready to pay more?
Eugene does not want to allow others to support his proprietary format. Ivan does not want to include something expensive that is not required for PowerArchiver. But if you like both applications why not to buy them all?

davidsplash

it would be nice to see beta versions of formats used as some are almost the same as their final versions and some take far to long to become final but are standard on other archiving packages long before pa adds them

davidsplash

true couild buy winrar but its interface is not as good as pas and winrar does not work well with windows. For instance i put a lot of things on my desktop and winrar sayes i have to go to my profile then desktop where as pa just goes to desktop just like windows explorer does.

pa interface is better and works with more formats plugins. wghy have two pakages doing virtually the same thing when one would be better.

Brian Gregory

@bsiegel:

I was going to ask for support for .xap (silverlight archive) but I realized that as more and more filetypes become simply some data stuffed in a zip, it would be great to add zip sniffing (sort of like how PA checks EXE to see if they are self-extracting archives). When you right-click a file, PA could do a very quick check of the magic bytes to see if it is a zip file, and if so it would operate exactly like .zip. No need to add support separately for .jar, .epub, .cbz, .xap, .docx, .odf, .woff, etc. And these formats don’t usually get associated with an archiver anyway - they have their own programs they are associated with. It would just be nice if PowerArchiver knew it could unpack them.

Excellent idea.

spwolf

Want something to be done in PowerArchiver Format? (PAF?)… Wish away here:
http://ideas.powerarchiver.com/

davidsplash

in actual fact you can have it as an alpha verion or a beta version the command line.