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Encyclopedia > ARC (file format)
ARC
File extension: .arc
.ark
.sue
MIME type: application/octet-stream
Developed by: System Enhancement Associates
Type of format: Data compression

ARC is a file format by SEA (System Enhancement Associates) that was very popular before Phil Katz's introduction of the ZIP format. The file format and the program were both called ARC. The ARC program essentially made obsolete the use of combinations of the SQ program to compress files and the LU program to create .LBR archives by combining the functions of both compression and archiving into a single program. ARC compresses multiple files into one - but unlike ZIP, not entire directory trees. The .arc format was the subject of quite a bit of controversy in the 1980s - an important event in the open source debate. A filename extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file applied to show its format. ... Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet Standard that extends the format of e-mail to support: text in character sets other than US-ASCII; non-text attachments; multi-part message bodies; and header information in non-ASCII character sets. ... In computer science and information theory, data compression or source coding is the process of encoding information using fewer bits (or other information-bearing units) than an unencoded representation would use through use of specific encoding schemes. ... A file format is a particular way to encode information for storage in a computer file. ... Phil Katz, shown in 1994, holds a computer disk containing compression software made by his company, PKWare Inc. ... The ZIP file format is a popular data compression and archival format. ... SQ was a program used in the early 1980s on both MS-DOS and CP/M computer systems to compress files so they use less space. ... The . ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ...


.arc is often also used as a file extension for several different file types that have in common that they are some kind of archive files. A filename extension or filename suffix is an extra set of (usually) alphanumeric characters that is appended to the end of a filename to allow computer users (as well as various pieces of software on the computer system) to quickly determine the type of data stored in the file. ...


In the late 1980s a dispute arose between SEA, maker of the ARC program, and PKWARE (Phil Katz Software) over the rights to a program named ARC (or PKARC). It quickly expanded into one of the largest controversies the BBS world ever saw. PKZIP is an archiving tool originally written by the late Phil Katz, and marketed by his company PKWARE, Inc. ... Ward Christensen and the computer that ran the first public Bulletin Board System, CBBS from BBS: The Documentary “BBS” redirects here. ...

Contents

Additional Notes

The SEA vs. PKWARE legal case brought trademark/copyright protection, and intellectual property issues to the forefront to those BBS cultures based on IBM/Intel computers. For example, information about the case was disseminated over the Fidonet network, a subset of the BBS scene usually running on IBM/Intel PC hardware in its early years. In retrospect, SEA vs. PKWARE was largely a non-issue to most BBS users outside of Fidonet. A trademark or trade mark[1] is a distinctive sign of some kind which is used by an individual, business organization or other legal entity to uniquely identify the source of its products and/or services to consumers, and to distinguish its products or services from those of other entities. ... Articles with similar titles include copywrite. ... For the 2006 film, see Intellectual Property (film). ... The FidoNet logo FidoNet is a worldwide computer network that is used for communication between bulletin board systems. ... The FidoNet logo FidoNet is a worldwide computer network that is used for communication between bulletin board systems. ...


The major players were Thom Henderson of SEA, and Phil Katz of PKWARE. While others were involved, the lines were soon drawn as Henderson vs. Katz. Thom Henderson had previously been known for his work with Fidonet, including organizing the IFNA (International Fidonet Association) and being an editor of FidoNews. Phil Katz, shown in 1994, holds a computer disk containing compression software made by his company, PKWare Inc. ...


The controversy centered on a program called ARC, released around 1985, which would compress and store groups of files as one file, making it easier and quicker to download programs and support files at once off of BBSes. This archiving software was written at SEA, and the source code was freely available. Because of the ease of use and availability of this program, it quickly became the de facto standard for file archives on Intel-based IBM machines. The crux of the dispute was Phil Katz's release of a program called PKARC, a faster version of ARC with assembler routines. Back then, compiler optimization was not as good as it is now.


In April of 1988, SEA sued Phil Katz and PKWARE for trademark violation, use of the ARC "look and feel", and direct lifting of ARC code. This was one of the first times that a member of the BBS community sued another member, and it was certainly the most publicized and covered of any up to that time.


The debate over this event spread to many parts of Fidonet and other online services such as Compuserve. Calls were made for protests, petitions, renaming of .ARC files to .SUE, and blatant violation of SEA's claims to ownership with the intention of bankrupting the company in legal fees.


Ironically, Henderson's own work in architecting and improving Fidonet were used against him, as the network spread more debates, contentions, and rumors regarding the legal case than he could reasonably be expected to respond to.


Ultimately, SEA was sold to a Japanese company in 1992 and Henderson moved back to Virginia. While the .arc format has fallen out of favor, the .zip format remains in widespread use.


Filename extension

  • .arc (all systems)
  • .ark (adopted by some bulletin boards as a naming convention indicating that the file contained software for CP/M rather than MS-DOS).
  • .sue (due to all the legal issues)

A filename extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file applied to show its format. ... CP/M was an operating system originally created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. ... Microsofts disk operating system, MS-DOS, was Microsofts implementation of DOS, which was the first popular operating system for the IBM PC, and until recently, was widely used on the PC compatible platform. ...

MIME-Type

  • application/octet-stream

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet Standard that extends the format of e-mail to support: text in character sets other than US-ASCII; non-text attachments; multi-part message bodies; and header information in non-ASCII character sets. ...

See also

This is a list of file formats used by archivers and compressors. ...

External links

  • ARC - free software Linux/Unix port of the .arc compression program
  • nomarch - another free software .arc compression program for Linux/Unix
  • The BBS Documentary: Compression - A documentary that discusses ARC history, in the context of BBS

 

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