                             Zoo vs ARCA vs PKARC


How does Zoo 1.20 compare with other fast archivers?  The following tests 
were done to determine just how well Zoo compresses files and how quickly 
it performs.

Three different sets of files were archived and extracted.  The MS-Kermit
2.29 distribution contains both executable code and text files and is meant
to serve as a "typical" case.  The driver and four passes of Microsoft C
version 3.0 contain only executable code and were used to test the archiving
of binary files.  Finally, a set of three text files was chosen to benchmark
the archiving of pure text files.

The test done in each case was as follows:  All the files in a given set
were archived.  The final size of the archive (obtained from the DOS DIR
command) was noted.  Then the archive was extracted.  The times for
archiving and extraction were measured.

When testing extraction speed of PKXARC and ARCE, the archive used for
extraction was always the one that had been created by ARCA, since ARCA
generates smaller archives than PKARC does.


I.   KERMIT 2.29 ARCHIVE

The MS-Kermit 2.29 distribution used contained the following files,
totalling 302,766 bytes:

     kerm229.exe  56,531  6-10-86 12:00p
     kermedt.doc   1,279  6-10-86 12:00p
     mskerm.doc  121,506  6-10-86 12:00p
     mskerm.hlp    8,928  6-10-86 12:00p
     msr229.upd    9,559  6-10-86 12:00p

program     archiving time    final size of archive   extraction time
-------     --------- ----    ----- ---- -- -------   ---------- ----
Zoo 1.20       1 min 21 s        104,963 bytes          1 min  0 s
ARCA 1.18      1 min 25 s        107,492 bytes
PKARC 1.0      1 min 42 s        111,466 bytes
ARCE 1.18                                               1 min  8 s
PKXARC 2.5                                              0 min 57 s


II.  FIVE PASSES OF MICROSOFT C COMPILER 3.0

The Microsoft C compiler version 3.0 comprises five separate files totalling
317,178 bytes:

     msc.exe  27,100  2-18-85  1:16p
     p0.exe   32,182  2-21-85  3:12p
     p1.exe   74,770  2-21-85  3:27p
     p2.exe  113,714  2-21-85  3:16p
     p3.exe   69,412  2-14-85  5:37p

program     archiving time    final size of archive   extraction time
-------     --------- ----    ----- ---- -- -------   ---------- ----
Zoo 1.20    2 min 42 s           236,275 bytes          1 min 39 s
ARCA 1.18   2 min 40 s           237,742 bytes
PKARC 1.0   3 min 30 s           260,118 bytes
ARCE 1.18                                               1 min 58 s
PKXARC 2.5                                              1 min 36 s


III.  TEXT FILES

The following set of text files, totalling 339,480 bytes, was used.  The
file a86.doc was a concatenation of all the documentation files for the A86
assembler version 2.10.  The file csrdoc.doc was from the C Spot Run
Library, version 1.0.  Finally, zoo.doc was the documentation for Zoo 1.10.

a86.doc    170,496  8-23-86  5:45p
csrdoc.doc 129,627  5-05-86 10:29p
zoo.doc     39,357  8-24-86  1:03p

program     archiving time    final size of archive   extraction time
-------     --------- ----    ----- ---- -- -------   ---------- ----
Zoo 1.20      1 min 55 s        142,183 bytes           1 min 20 s
ARCA 1.18     2 min  7 s        147,977 bytes
PKARC 1.0     2 min  7 s        151,445 bytes
ARCE 1.18                                               1 min 35 s
PKXARC 2.5                                              1 min 18 s


	                           RESULTS

ARCHIVING SPEED.  Zoo 1.20 and ARCA 1.18 were close together.  PKARC 1.0 was
also close in two tests but trailed far behind in the binary file
benchmark.

EXTRACTION SPEED.  PKXARC 2.5 had a slight edge over Zoo 1.20.  ARCE 1.18 was
consistently the slowest.

COMPRESSION.  Zoo 1.20 was the clear winner here, consistently producing the
smallest archive.  

                                      -- Rahul Dhesi 1986/09/06
