Macworld: Mac Gems Weblog: Compress Files 1.0 ...

Up to Discussions in Mac Software

4 Replies Last post: May 17, 2008 1:00 PM by DrFacade

Macworld.com

1,900 posts since
Feb 6, 2004

May 14, 2007 12:00 PM

Mac Gems Weblog: Compress Files 1.0

If you frequently send files to people who don't use Macs, Compress Files is a handy tool. It's also useful and easy to use for creating your own file archives. more

solitary

1 posts since
Nov 8, 2001

1. May 14, 2007 9:20 PM

in response to: Macworld.com

Re: Mac Gems Weblog: Compress Files 1.0

Thank you for the article. A question though, is how does one create encrypted ZIP files without Stuffit? The Mac OS can de-encrypt them but seemingly does not create them.
Also why does the Mac OS use resource forks when they are not needed when you send the file to a Windows user? There must not be anything of value in them.

Dan Frakes

3,256 posts since
Apr 14, 2003

2. May 15, 2007 12:10 PM

in response to: solitary

Re: Mac Gems Weblog: Compress Files 1.0

Quote:<hr />
Thank you for the article. A question though, is how does one create encrypted ZIP files without Stuffit? The Mac OS can de-encrypt them but seemingly does not create them.

<hr />

Right. You'll need third-party software to create an encrypted .zip archive. I haven't tested any such products, but here are a couple that claim to do it:

http://www.jaanpatterson.com/dryptaway.php
http://www.rbcafe.com/cryptix/

Quote:<hr />
Also why does the Mac OS use resource forks when they are not needed when you send the file to a Windows user? There must not be anything of value in them.

<hr />

That's quite a long answer to get into here, and a decades-old discussion

Here's more info on resource forks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_fork

But to answer your question as simply as possible, it's not that there's nothing of value in resource forks; rather, because resource forks aren't supported by the filesystems used by Windows, Windows users aren't able to access or use that data.

Dan Frakes | Senior Editor, Macworld

cellgfx

2 posts since
Feb 1, 2005

3. Jun 28, 2007 8:09 PM

in response to: Dan Frakes

Re: Mac Gems Weblog: Compress Files 1.0

Looks good, but I've just found the joy that is YemuZip. It's free and it lets you create PC-compatible zip files as well.

DrFacade

1 posts since
May 17, 2008

4. May 17, 2008 1:00 PM

in response to: Macworld.com

Re: Compress Files 1.0

This product deserves 0 out of 5 mice. Advertisements do not inform the buyer that compressed and encrypted files cannot be decompressed or decrypted. You have to download other software for that... and so far everything I've tried (including all the software applications recemmended on apimac.com) cannot recognize the file format of my compressed and encrypted files. Too bad - I was using it to back up a software application I'm writing. Guess I'll just have to start all over and rewrite everything.

Go to original post

May 14, 2007 12:00 PM

Mac Gems Weblog: Compress Files 1.0

Actions

More Like This