ARJ (computer program)

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ARJ ( A rchivar R obert J ung)
File extension : .arj
Developed by: Robert K. Jung
Initial release: 1990
Current version: 2.86 (ARJ); 3.20 (ARJ32) (as of January 2, 2012)
Type: Data compression
Container for: any files
Website : www.arjsoftware.com

ARJ is a command line-oriented application program for archiving and compression of files . At the same time, ARJ also describes the proprietary file format of this application. It was named after its inventor Robert K. Jung ( A rchivar R obert J ung). Originally written for MS-DOS , there is now a version for Windows with ARJ32 .

In 2002 a free version of the software was released under the GNU GPL , which can now run on more platforms ( Linux , Solaris and OS / 2 ) than the original versions of ARJ Software Inc.

Parts of the process were protected by a US patent.

Features / history

In the early to mid-1990s, ARJ was the most widespread packing program under MS-DOS and Windows 3.11 after PKZIP , but it never ousted the ZIP format from its top position. Compared to PKZIP and other packing programs, it offered the advantage that the same program was used for packing and unpacking, although there is also a slim separate unpacker. ARJ is also characterized by the fact that it has a large number of commands and switches that not only serve to set the compression density and packing speed, but also offer more extensive intervention in the way files are to be structured, searched and unpacked. Almost all commands and switches can be combined as required, whereby the order is sometimes relevant for the result. Furthermore, ARJ has a more robust way of handling multi-volume archives for the time, and thus conquered a niche area in mailbox systems, which was replaced by the RAR format in the mid-1990s.

Up to version 2.5 there were some versions that appeared in German. There are also several programs which, with a graphic attachment for Windows, helped the program to have no menu navigation - such as WinARJ . As a command line program, after the introduction of Windows 95, it was almost completely replaced by ZIP and RAR , which brought their own menu-driven interfaces.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ United States Patent 5,140,321
  2. ↑ WinArj on softsea.com.

Web links