[Info-vax] VMS V8.4 (IA64) v. Non-directory file named fred.DIR; 1

[Steven Schweda]

> It seems that there are large blocks of binary zero, at various
> spots in the file. ZIP or gzip will easily compress those out.

   The file is currently on my loud-warm rx2600 system, so I
haven't wanted to look at it too closely, so I know nothing,
but while the disk was spinning, I ran a couple of
compression tests, and "zip -8" said "(deflated 39%)".
(Using LZMA instead of Deflate compression got that up to
"(LZMAed 55%)", but took about two hours instead of about
twenty minutes.  Expansion took about ten minutes, either
way, I believe.)

> > Has anyone contacted HP and recommended that they also offer ZIPPED
> > DVD/CDROM Images for download?
>
> Or generate one closer to the right size.

   When I make my own discs from a giant BACKUP /IMAGE save
set, I usually try to get within, say, 10% of the minimum
size.  With my usual luck, that seems to take two or three
tries.  (Some folks may have more productive ways to spend
their time.)

   I haven't tried to suggest any process improvements to HP
regarding its software distribution methods since August
2010, when I suggested an update from "UnZipSFX 5.42 of 14
January 2001" or "UnZipSFX 5.51 of 22 May 2004" on their VMS
patch kits.  Now that I can't get to the patch kits, I can't
tell if anyone ever did anything about that, but I wouldn't
be amazed if they're still using tools which are too old and
lame to deal with files bigger than 2GB.

   You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him
drink.  (Or the Dorothy Parker variation.)