From: djtooley@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu (Doug Tooley)
Subject: PKZIP 2.04c  vs.  ARJ/LHA/ZOO  Compression/Speed Results
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 00:14:45 GMT


For those interested, here is my posting to comp.compression:

--------------

Results of Compression Testing: PKZIP 2.04c.          Jan 06/92
 
Data:       Contents of ARJ230.EXE and PKZ204C.EXE
		      (with duplicate filenames renamed/included)
Total Size: 720937 bytes
Archivers:  PKZIP204c PKZIP110 PKZIP193a ARJ230 LHA213 ZOO210
Machine:    386/33, 10M RAM  \w 128k BIOS Shadow RAM
Drive:      Seagate ST296N (84M)  SCSI controller   (no s/w cache)
Timing:     Norton Utilities'  TM.EXE  v4.50
Execution:  MSDOS BATch file
 
Results:
 
 TIME    FILENAME        SIZE      COMMAND
 
Sorted by Size
 
27 secs  ZIP204X  ZIP    358090    pkzip -ex
55 secs  ARJ230JM ARJ    359725    arj a -jm
23 secs  ZIP204   ZIP    360153    pkzip
21 secs  ZIP204N  ZIP    360153    pkzip -en
47 secs  ARJ230   ARJ    360228    arj a
48 secs  ARJ230M1 ARJ    360230    arj a -m1
22 secs  ZIP193   ZIP    362995    pkzip
44 secs  ARJ230M2 ARJ    363519    arj a -m2
48 secs  LHA213   LZH    368780    lha a
19 secs  ZIP204F  ZIP    369940    pkzip -ef
94 secs  ZOO210H  ZOO    370481    zoo ah
35 secs  ARJ230M3 ARJ    371169    arj a -m3
26 secs  ZIP110   ZIP    381182    pkzip
15 secs  ZIP204S  ZIP    393321    pkzip -es
69 secs  ZOO210   ZOO    459204    zoo a
24 secs  ARJ230M0 ARJ    723239    arj a -m0
14 secs  ZIP2040  ZIP    724559    pkzip -e0
 
Sorted by Time
 
14 secs  ZIP2040  ZIP    724559    pkzip -e0
15 secs  ZIP204S  ZIP    393321    pkzip -es
19 secs  ZIP204F  ZIP    369940    pkzip -ef
21 secs  ZIP204N  ZIP    360153    pkzip -en
22 secs  ZIP193   ZIP    362995    pkzip
23 secs  ZIP204   ZIP    360153    pkzip
24 secs  ARJ230M0 ARJ    723239    arj a -m0
26 secs  ZIP110   ZIP    381182    pkzip
27 secs  ZIP204X  ZIP    358090    pkzip -ex
35 secs  ARJ230M3 ARJ    371169    arj a -m3
44 secs  ARJ230M2 ARJ    363519    arj a -m2
47 secs  ARJ230   ARJ    360228    arj a
48 secs  ARJ230M1 ARJ    360230    arj a -m1
48 secs  LHA213   LZH    368780    lha a
55 secs  ARJ230JM ARJ    359725    arj a -jm
69 secs  ZOO210   ZOO    459204    zoo a
94 secs  ZOO210H  ZOO    370481    zoo ah
 
Sorted by Name  (for the scroll-back impaired)
 
47 secs  ARJ230   ARJ    360228    arj a
55 secs  ARJ230JM ARJ    359725    arj a -jm
24 secs  ARJ230M0 ARJ    723239    arj a -m0
48 secs  ARJ230M  ARJ    360230    arj a -m1
44 secs  ARJ230M2 ARJ    363519    arj a -m2
35 secs  ARJ230M3 ARJ    371169    arj a -m3
48 secs  LHA213   LZH    368780    lha a
26 secs  ZIP110   ZIP    381182    pkzip
22 secs  ZIP193   ZIP    362995    pkzip
23 secs  ZIP204   ZIP    360153    pkzip
14 secs  ZIP2040  ZIP    724559    pkzip -e0
19 secs  ZIP204F  ZIP    369940    pkzip -ef
21 secs  ZIP204N  ZIP    360153    pkzip -en
15 secs  ZIP204S  ZIP    393321    pkzip -es
27 secs  ZIP204X  ZIP    358090    pkzip -ex
69 secs  ZOO210   ZOO    459204    zoo a
94 secs  ZOO210H  ZOO    370481    zoo ah
 
 
My comments:
 
Well, the new ZIP takes it hands down.
 
I still prefer many of ARJ's commands, such as the ability to split ARJ
files so their size will fit on floppies. ZIP's version of this feature
appears to only work if you archive directly to a disk. (From what I
gathered from the documentation.) Personally, I prefer the flexibility.
 
As for Zoo...  I realize it is portable across a gazillion different 
architechtures, but come on. With zip source available on Unix machines, 
I can see it quickly replacing zoo as the over-all standard (if it hasn't
already).
 
Congratulations PKWARE, PKZip's speed and now compression is #1!
 
	--- Doug
 
...."I haven't lost my mind, I know exactly where I left it."................
Doug Tooley             3B Co-Op CS student at U of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
djtooley@{descartes|napier|cayley}.uwaterloo.ca