What Crunchers do you guys prefer?

[Photon]

Well, if decrunching takes too long, you could always add a loader bar and a tiny version of Tchaikovsky's lovely Nutcruncher Suite!

[andy2004]

Originally Posted by dalton

about crunchers again:

I should say that I never crunch individual demo parts. I make an exe, usually only two sections (one fast, one chip) and then I crunch it all together. Here's my opinions:

*CrunchMania: very good packing ratio but crashes on modern cpu
*Stonecracker: fast and reliable but not very good ratio
*Crunch (cru): best cruncher on aminet imho
*Blueberry execruncher: uses massive amounts of memory and cpu time when crunching, but has the best ratio I've ever seen. Good for 4k's
*Natcracker: Good for 40k's, better ratio than cru, stc, cm

don't know anything about the old crunchers like titanics etc..

anyone know where i can download Natcracker and Bluebury execrunther from there not on http://amigarealm.whdownload.com/ami...ols/tools1.htm site.

[pmc]

Natcracker...? - who knows, I didn't look.

Blueberry's execruncher...? Attached for you.

[andy2004]

Thanks pmc

[deicidal]

I remember Zippy/Nemesis once telling me that N.O.M.A.D had written a cruncher has anyone else heard of this?

[phx]

I just realized that most crunchers come without source, and when there is source then for the decruncher only.

Are there good (preferably small) Amiga crunchers which come with full source, so also the cruncher can be ported (e.g. rewritten as a C source)?

Some months ago I resourced the bytekiller decruncher and rewrote it in C, but the cruncher itself it missing...

[WayneK]

@deicidal:

NOMAD used bytekiller in most of his amiga releases, maybe he wrote a simple cruncher for his warper? But I don't remember seeing anything released by him with an unknown/custom (de)cruncher...

[deicidal]

Originally Posted by WayneK

@deicidal:

NOMAD used bytekiller in most of his amiga releases, maybe he wrote a simple cruncher for his warper? But I don't remember seeing anything released by him with an unknown/custom (de)cruncher...

Cheers, I was wondering a I had had a quick look to see if I could find anything and turned up nothing hense this post.

Maybe it was something he was working on, it was a long time ago after all.

[Photon]

Originally Posted by phx

I just realized that most crunchers come without source, and when there is source then for the decruncher only.

Are there good (preferably small) Amiga crunchers which come with full source, so also the cruncher can be ported (e.g. rewritten as a C source)?

Some months ago I resourced the bytekiller decruncher and rewrote it in C, but the cruncher itself it missing...

Well, the only reason I didn't share the SCXcruncher is that the source is not unmessified (and never will be, since it works)! Also, it was among the first things I coded when I went back to Amiga... ie. a combined 'I was a noob then' and 'old code' whine... er...

But enough excuses, if anyone wants it I'll find the files and upload a proper archive.

[pmc]

Any of you guys got any experience with Timecruncher2.2...?

It's no good for crunching executables as they need to be absolutely located on decrunch from what I can see but data file crunching seems to have very good ratios even though crunching itself takes *forever*.

I can put up with the long crunching times as long as the results are small data files.

The decrunch code is available and I've successfully used it to decrunch.

Does anyone know whether overall it's stable / has any undesirable bugs or side effects that makes it a bad cruncher / decruncher to use though...?

While we're at it - can anyone tell me which cruncher has the best ratios, has decrunch source code available and can do in place decrunching...?

I imagine the answer will probably be CrunchMania but I'd like to avoid that one if possible.

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by pmc

Does anyone know whether overall it's stable / has any undesirable bugs or side effects that makes it a bad cruncher / decruncher to use though...?

The decruncher code looks OK to me.

Originally Posted by pmc

While we're at it - can anyone tell me which cruncher has the best ratios, has decrunch source code available and can do in place decrunching...?

I imagine the answer will probably be CrunchMania but I'd like to avoid that one if possible.

Why do you want to avoid CrunchMania? And yes, it would have been my answer. Anyway, you can also try Rob Northen's ProPack but CrM beats it most of the time.

[Frog]

CRUa is quite good

[pmc]

Originally Posted by StingRay

The decruncher code looks OK to me.

Nice one.

Originally Posted by StingRay

Why do you want to avoid CrunchMania?

A couple of reason, maybe valid, maybe not! I'm sure you can tell me.

First, I thought that the software was sold commercially and therefore I would need a license code (which is possibly unavailable...?) to be able to use the cruncher's features...?

Second, don't I remember something about the decruncher code being 68020 and above only or some problem with it on 68020 or something. /me memory fail (again...!)

@ Frog - thanks, I'll check it out.

[Frog]

CRUa was used in most of TBL demos

[deicidal]

Originally Posted by pmc

Second, don't I remember something about the decruncher code being 68020 and above only or some problem with it on 68020 or something. /me memory fail (again...!)

I am pretty sure it was crunchmania I used to use on my a500

[pmc]

@ deicidal - you're probably right, as I say - I've got a bad memory

@ Frog - I checked it out, ratios seem OK but not great. Also looked from the quick scan of the example that shows calling the decruncher that there's not in place decrunch available. As I say though, all the above is based on quick tests and text file skim reading, I didn't read the .guide documentation it comes with...

[deicidal]

Originally Posted by pmc

@ deicidal - you're probably right, as I say - I've got a bad memory

Well don't take my word as gospel this is the same muppet when he got his first retro style ami, loaded up devpac and spent the next 15 minites trying to remember figure out how to load the source code, then i found out the a1200 i had bought had a faulty right mouse button.

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by pmc

First, I thought that the software was sold commercially and therefore I would need a license code (which is possibly unavailable...?) to be able to use the cruncher's features...?

You can use it without any problems, after all, the coder made a test version available.

Originally Posted by pmc

Second, don't I remember something about the decruncher code being 68020 and above only or some problem with it on 68020 or something. /me memory fail (again...!)

The decruncher works fine on 68000, it was used in a lot of A500/68000 demos. However, in the source there's a "ble.l" line which is 68020+ only (most 68000 only Assemblers don't care) which you'll have to change to ble.w.

[pmc]

OK mate - nice one.

Looks like my memory was at an all time level of bad in relation to this one then.

[pmc]

Following on from this, I've been using CRM1.91t (I'm assuming that one's the latest version) and it seems to have very nice ratios.

Decrunch time takes longer than for example StoneCracker but the size of crunched files can't be argued with.

One thing though, and this is probably a *very* stupid / lazy question but where can I get the separate decrunch source code...? It doesn't seem to be in the CRM1.91t.lha archive available on aminet. Also, the docs say that it was something you got supplied with once you were a registered user (which obviously, I'm not...)

Seems clear that the decrunch source is floating around somewhere - can anyone point me to it...?