Help!
William,
I have just sent a message to Jo-Anne with VERY detailed instructions for
decompressing files. Since I still have it in the clipboard, I'll just
send along a second copy here to you:
You have the key to what you need when you noticed that the filenames
end in .LHA, .LZH, .ARC, .PAK, .TXT, and .ZIP. I rather doubt that
you have any .PAK files from CIS, since we try to limit the number of
compression methods we use in our libraries, and I don't recall our
ever using anything in that format. But all of those extensions
indicate the way in which your program was packed for uploading to
the library or to a bulletin board. You see, for downloading, it is
best to compress the program. While being compressed, the file size
is 'squeezed' in a special way, and all of the small files needed for
a program are placed into one archive. The archive is then
uploaded. When you download it, you get all the files you need in a
single download, and it takes less time because the size was squeezed
down. But you have to unpack it before you can use it, and you have
to use the same method for unpacking that was used to pack it.
For .LZH and .LHA files, you need LHA138.RUN from Library 16 of
AmigaUser.
For .ARC files, you need ARC.EXE from Library 16.
.TXT files are not compressed, and you should be able to put them into a
word processor or an editor and read them. You should be able to read
them with MORE that came with your Amiga.
For .ZIP files, you can use UNZIP.LHA from Library 16 of AmigaUser, but
this one will have to be unpacked with .LHA before you can use it.
So – you download LHA138.RUN, ARC.EXE, and UNZIP.LHA. Save them all in a
disk, but to make it easy to give instructions, copy them into RAM: while
we get you going.
You must unpack LHA138.RUN, but it is a self-dissolving archive. When you
have it in RAM:, just type:
MAKEDIR RAM:LHARC
CD RAM:LHARC
RAM:LHA138.RUN
This will unpack the program into a directory RAM:LHARC. There will be a
program called LHA, and one that is documentation. You need to copy the
LHA file to your c: directory or another directory that is always
available. To copy it to the C: directory, type:
COPY LHA C:
Then, copy the documentation to some place where you can keep it. I keep
a directory on my hard drive for documentation of such things, called
DOCS. Follow the above pattern to copy your documentation to a place
where you will be able to find it when you need to look up something about
using LHA.
Then, copy ARC.EXE to your c: directory:
COPY RAM:ARC.EXE C:ARC
(That simplifies the use of it, and you don't really need the EXE part in
the name.)
Then, you need to unpack the UNZIP.LHA. Type:
MAKEDIR RAM:UNZIP
CD RAM:UNZIP
lha e ram:unzip.lha
And this one will unpack into the directory Ram:Unzip. Once again, you
will find several files, including UNZIP and a doc file. Copy UNZIP to
your c: directory:
COPY RAM:UNZIP/UNZIP C:
Now, all of the unpackers you need will be safely stored in your c:
directory, ready for use. You will already have used LHA, so you know how
to use it. To use ARC, you do much the same except that you type ARC X
directory:filename
And to use Unzip, you do the same (make a directory, cd to that directory,
etc.) and then type:
UNZIP DIRECTORY:FILENAME
I hope this helps, but I'm sure I will have left out something. Please
ask again about anything that puzzles you.
—Betty