Standardized .rar Files

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

There's been a flood of uploads lately, and some of the files wont open for me. They are in some format that WinRar doesn't recognize. Since, pretty much, the time SimT and Dev(and most foreign sites) have been around, uploads have been in WinRar, 7Zip or came with an installer. Since my file opener wont tell me what these files are, maybe that info could be included in the upload. Or a standardized system could be put in place. One member told me his Peazip wouldn't open my file. Never heard of that "brand". WinRar has been around forever and it's  30 day free-trial is one of the worst kept secrets on the 'net. I've been on that 30 days for 15 years. Some members I don't even bother downing because I know it will end up in the trash. Anyone else having this issue?

[rocker289 75]

Peazip is cross platform has RAR,7Zip and many more achive decoders it's worth at try

Price it'free

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

1 hour ago, rocker289 said:

Peazip is cross platform has RAR,7Zip and many more achive decoders it's worth at try

Price it'free

It didn't seem to work for you.

Besides, why should I stop using what has always worked for zips, to accommodate a few who use something that doesn't work for me.

[Cyclone Boom 16,829]

4 hours ago, SIM-ple Jack said:

Or a standardized system could be put in place.

It is possible for us to enforce file format restrictions onto STEX categories, so only .zip and .dat files could be uploaded.

Although we've no current rule to say that authors must use .zip files for their content uploads, it would be much easier for people if zips were the only archive that were used. The advantage of course with zip files is they can be handled by the operating system, and not need any 3rd party software to do the job. I personally have had good success with 7-Zip for opening .rar files. This is also a free and open source program which handles the extraction of a range of formats.

Should there be any particular files which you're having trouble with, please use the "Report File" function and we'll investigate. There certainly will be others who encounter the same errors extracting the .rar archives, and so we can convert any such uploads to zip format which would help you and anyone else.

[Max4k 721]

That's weird, I never heard of a .rar having issues opening.  I've been using the same Winrar program since the Windows XP days

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

9 hours ago, Max4k said:

That's weird, I never heard of a .rar having issues opening.  I've been using the same Winrar program since the Windows XP days

Me too. It's the oddball apps others have begun to use, that's the issue. Either they don't work very well, or there's a setting they're not ticking off to make it work for all.

19 hours ago, Cyclone Boom said:

Should there be any particular files which you're having trouble with, please use the "Report File" function and we'll investigate. There certainly will be others who encounter the same errors extracting the .rar archives, and so we can convert any such uploads to zip format which would help you and anyone else.

That will eventually become an annoyance you might not want to deal with. And the wait time for that process to complete. Most users will probably move on. Of course, if "guests" get this problem, what are they're options? And what will that do to the rep of the site? I, personally, have blackballed them, but occasionally a new member comes up with a strange app.

[Max4k 721]

Now that I think of it,  I remember having some issues a few years ago and had to upgrade. Im using WinRar v5.5

[matias93 7,535]

WinRAR 5 introduced a new compression format, RAR5, which does not have retrocompatibility with previous versions of the RAR algorythm, but is stored with the same extension, so is frequent to find issues when trying to decompress it with third party applications, like Peazip (which is in fact a front-end for various command line compressor applications).

If it were for the sake of efficiency, I would vouch for 7z to become the standard format for compressed files here, as most of the file sizes are uncompressed bitmap images which are very effectively compressed with that algorythm, but I know for sure that would mean a lot of problems for new users, while zip has near-universal support across different OS, and in most files the advantages of a better compression aren't that evident (megapacks and such are a notable exception)

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

I'm not very experienced in this, the most recent file i compressed is my vertiport Lot, with the highest compressibility i made a zip (32m->25.3m) and a 7z (32m->24.4m), In China, most of people more prefer to RAR, but personally i more often use zip due to well compatibility in the world, and with 7z when dealing with big size file.

Sincerely,

-- Raymond