This site is the official home of 
, the archive converter written (almost) purely as an AmigaDOS script!
But what's the point of converting files from LhA to LZX?
Because the filesize of LhA2LZX3.lha is 74k, and the filesize of LhA2LZX3.lzx is 49k. Which is two thirds the size. So now you too can enjoy space optimization (you can fit more on disks) and temporal efficiency (it compresses stuff quicker). So now you know.
LZX has the ability to look ahead and compress similar data in multiple files, often saving quite a bit of space, especially in archives which contain different versions of the same program, or if the filetypes are the same (so if the archive contains only icons, the icon header need only be compressed once, instead of compressing it for each file individually). So now you know that, too.
What is ?
It's a script which enables you to convert all your old LhA archives to LZX archives, which often gives better compression rates. It's all done by requesters, so you don't even have to touch the keyboard. It also will intelligently convert to the smallest file format - so if your original LhA archive was smaller than the new LZX archive, the smaller one will be kept. And since v3.0, you can use it directly from Directory Opus - just select your archives and go!
It's useful because this program is an AmigaDOS script file, which means you can load it into a text viewer/editor and see how it all works. Virtually all of the lines are commented to help you understand more what is happening, and to help you to write your own AmigaDOS scripts.
As of v3.1 there's also a bit of AREXX in there too. Hence the "almost" in the title ;^)
Requirements for :
- LhA
- LZX with the freely available keyfile for better compression and much faster LhA decompression
- inf - to get the available free space of the destination disk
Other stuff I have done
- A saved game file at the very end of The Settlers. Just attack the last 2 Guard Rooms to get the end-of-game sequence!
- VistaPro colourmaps - the ones which are built into VistaLite, in fact...
- Shift-Click here to download v1.0 of the other scripts I have written. Or just read the .readme so you know what they're about.
Other useful bits & bobs
The files below will help with my scripts...I didn't write these, though...
- DosMan - a complete AmigaDOS manual in Amigaguide and MUI form!
- Arq - a small commodity which adds animations to all requesters. Apart from the filelist ones, natch...
- DiskSqueeze - compress disks with LZX (offering greater compression than DMS), and also an AmigaDOS script program.
- AllowBad - formats disks that have hard errors on, making them usable again!
- Fill - a program that fills a disk to the brim with the files you give it.
These are two of my favourite fonts, available for download. See Organiser in action here.
Go on...mail me!
richie@musicplace.screaming.net
