XDM20

Short:        DMS like disk packer using LZX v2.0
Author:       Adam Chapman
Uploader:     mrohles wtal de (Marcel Rohles)
Type:         util/arc
Architecture: m68k-amigaos

The best disk packer is back in a major update. See below for a list of
features. Main update points are that there is now an installer script, a
DSM to xDM convertor and versions for reqistered LZX users.

Version 2.0:
Major update.

° xDM now has selective track compression (ie. Compress a group of
  tracks, not just a whole disk).
° A timer showing how long it took from start to end is displayed at
  the end of the operation.
° The LZX operations now have the -P option used to boost LZX's
  priority upto 5 so that it (de)crunches much faster and the -m
  option to disable interactivity.
° At the end of the compression cycle, xDM now displays the
  percentage saving over a normal 901120 byte disk image.
° Before 'dd' reads/writes a file to/from a disk, it's task priority
  is raised to 5 via ChangeTaskPri to give faster read/writes.
° More secure error checking introduced.
° More (and more secure) checking that the component external
  programs (such as LZX and dd) exist added.
° Header text changed from black text on a white background to just
  white text, plus other various text changes to make things a
  little clearer and friendlier.
° Various snippets of code changed to make the whole thing work
  more efficiently and tightly.
° Installer script changed to take into account these changes and
  the whole script changed into "Installer" format.
° AmigaGuide documentation updated.
° Replaced ANSI Escape character with "*e" for proper compatibility.
° Inserted checking for the non-existence for an xDM archive before
  beginning to decompress.  If it doesn't, xDM now exits gracefully.
° Merge group limits of LZX down to 880k from 1024k - saving memory.
° Low memory option added.
° Decompression time added.
° DMS to xDM conversion utility (DMx - GUI and CLI versions).
° Various sections of code moved around for better operation.
° Amount of parenthesis in time taken routines for both packing and
  unpacking reduced to reduce Eval errors.
° If Eval returns a "Mismatched parenthesis" error in the time taken
  routines, this is now ignored and the time value isn't displayed.
  Better to miss it that time round than to have a silly looking
  display.
° Kickstart / Workbench v2.04 compatible (CLI version, GUI version
  if RequestChoice & RequestFile are also copied, not included due
  to copyright reasons).
° Now uses PackDev to compress.  "dd" is just included for early
  release (v1.0) compatibility.
° Decompressing a non-xDM archive used to crash the program.  Now
  fixed.
° On decompression, the file-extension is checked.  If it isn't
  ".xdm" then the program exits.  (This was done using List and Echo
  and not the LFORMAT %E construct, as this is Kickstart v2.1 and
  above only, thus removing 2.04 compatibility from the CLI version).
  Further to this, after attempting to decompress the image with LZX,
  the "xdm" directory is checked for the existence of xDM.dsk or
  xDM.image.  If these cannot be found then the operation is deemed a
  failure - not an xDM archive and the program loops.
° An archive name of ".xdm" used to be accepted.  Not any more.
° xDM used to ask the user to make sure that a disk was inserted,
  even when the device it referred to was RAD:  Now fixed.
° Another version of the scripts for LZX registered owners (-Qf/af
  options, but not -9 because it takes too long and only reduces
  archive size by a small amount).
° Far more extensive error checking (QUIT gadget is pressed) in the
  GUI version.
° Far more extensive checking and more complex moving backwards (BACK
  gadget is pressed) in the GUI version.
° CD's back to directory Workbench was pointing to rather than ENV:
  when you quit the GUI version.
° The "Select Drive To (De)Compress To/From" requester in the GUI
  version is now separated into 2 separate requesters for clarity.
° Default (De)Compress directories via an environment variable added
  in the GUI version.
° The default tools window was being used in the GUI version, instead
  of a custom IconX window.  Now fixed window appears, is named and
  expands the whole width of the users' screen.
° When xDM GUI exited, the window was left on the screen.  Now it
  closes automatically.
° Redundant routines in the CLI version removed and other
  miscellaneous (GUI version only) references removed to shorten
  code further and increase speed.
° Changed Compress/Extract options from (C and X respectively) to A
  (for Add) and X (for eXtract).
° "Version 2.0" text included in the main scripts


============================= Archive contents =============================

Original  Packed Ratio    Date     Time    Name
-------- ------- ----- --------- --------  -------------
    2232     518 76.7% 29-Sep-95 19:25:54 +Documents.info
    2232     522 76.6% 29-Sep-95 19:26:12 +GUI.info
    4039    1133 71.9% 29-Sep-95 19:26:12 +DMx_GUI.info
    9630    2390 75.1% 29-Sep-95 19:18:30 +xDM_GUI
    4039    1119 72.2% 29-Sep-95 19:26:12 +xDM_GUI.info
    9669    2406 75.1% 29-Sep-95 19:18:34 +xDM_GUIr
    4039    1121 72.2% 29-Sep-95 19:26:12 +xDM_GUIr.info
    2602     816 68.6% 29-Sep-95 19:18:40 +Install_xDM
    4718    1167 75.2% 29-Sep-95 19:25:28 +Install_xDM.info
    2690     901 66.5% 29-Sep-95 19:17:50 +DMx_CLI
    7519    2046 72.7% 29-Sep-95 19:17:56 +xDM_CLI
    7558    2063 72.7% 29-Sep-95 19:18:04 +xDM_CLIr
   19145    7272 62.0% 29-Sep-95 19:17:42 +DMx.guide
    4627    1347 70.8% 29-Sep-95 19:25:54 +DMx.guide.info
   35807   12858 64.0% 29-Sep-95 19:13:26 +xDM.guide
    4627    1346 70.9% 29-Sep-95 19:25:54 +xDM.guide.info
    4340    1359 68.6% 29-Sep-95 19:18:20 +DMx_GUI
    9160    5499 39.9% 03-Sep-95 15:09:14 +dd
   23420   11135 52.4% 03-Sep-95 15:09:18 +PackDev
-------- ------- ----- --------- --------
  162093   57018 64.8% 01-Oct-95 17:34:40   19 files