Various vendors and Interex helpfully distribute the LZW
program that Telamon even more helpfully provided to the
3000 user community.  It is a small program (amazing how
much capability can be packed into so few sectors of NMPRG
file by efficient coding), so the fact that it appears in a number
of accounts is never-mind, size-wise....  but....:   In doing test
compress of the entire FREEWARE account with LZW, I
discovered two things:

(1)  It appears that a very recent version of LZW is needed to
successfully compress everything in FREEWARE;  in fact
Vers A.03.36 is the only one I had that would do all files in this
account.

(2)  Some vendors and Interex are distributing older versions
of LZW;  in some cases *really* old versions.


My beancount, for the four versions I had on our 959:

Oldest LZW:   LZW5.NMPRV.CSLXL  from Interex.
Run this one and you get:
LZW: (C) 1995 - Telamon, Inc. - Version A.03.11
[A.02.04] (Oct  9 1995)
I just loaded the entire CSLXL account that Interex recently
sent me on their "Rel 1998" tape, so I should be up on the
latest Interex is shipping...   Vers A.03.11 is *real* old....
... which leads me to wonder how often Interex is updating
some or all of the NMPRGs in the CSLXL account....  ??....

A bit newer, but aging:   LZW.UTIL.LPSTOOLS  from Lund.
For this one you get:
LZW: (C) 1991, 1996 - Telamon, Inc. - Version A.03.31
[A.02.04] (Dec  3 1996)

Better:   LZW.LIBRARY.REGO  from Adager.
This version yields:
LZW: (C) 1991, 1997 - Telamon, Inc. - Version A.03.33
[A.02.04] (Apr  4 1997)

But the winner in the "latest version of LZW" that I *had* on
our 959 contest is (note deliberate past tense):
LZW.PUB.FREEWARE  from.....  Michael, I guess...    :-)
LZW[beta]: (C) 1991, 1997 - Telamon, Inc. - Version A.03.36
[A.02.04] (Sep 17 1997)


... hmmm..:  but wait:  Sep 1997 ??...  and "[beta]" ??...  even
*that* is getting a bit stale....  seems like it's high time to go to
the source:
ftp://ftp.telamon.com/dist ....  well, O.K...:  I ended up going
via the helpful pointer at  http://www.allegro.com/software/ ....
either way...   anyway:  did the "raw binary" thing;  FTP'd the file
to our 959 from my PC with the right file specs;  ran it;   and..:

LZW: (C) 1991, 1998 - Telamon, Inc. - Version A.03.45
[A.02.04] (Sep 24 1998)

... EOF=671, FWIW...  but wait !!!.:  This isn't MOVER;  so we
don't have to worry about EOF (habits are hard to break....)....
and:
!!...  A *whole year* newer version than even Michael's latest
in the FREEWARE account on the Interex Rel 1998 tape (note
that I chose my words *very* carefully in this last sentence)....


Now...., to hopefully be fair all around:

Other vendors are distributing LZW as a helpful service;  they
are obviously in no way obligated to make sure they have the
latest version;  or even to provide any version at all.   Interex
would seem to have the highest "obligation" if there is any,
given that they are distributing a version of LZW in the CSLXL
account;  but even there I don't know that there is anything that
says it has to be the latest version at the time they cut the tapes
(although given that the LZW5 in the CSLXL account is over three
years old, it seems high time for a revision update....).


A few morals from this saga:

(1)   Software revision and copy control is a job that is never,
*ever* done.

(2)   By default the number of copies tends to get out of hand;
and multiple copies will be at various rev levels.

(3)   Programs that are "passed through" an intermediate party
are pretty much guaranteed to fall behind in the update cycle;
sometimes *way* behind.

(4)   In the final analysis, system managers are responsible for
the files on their system;  i.e.:  user beware.

(5)   Job security for system managers is still pretty good...   ;-)


Oh, yeah:   Did I mention that I think LZW is a pretty slick, reliable,
and cost-effective program ??...  which leads me to wonder:
Why and how did the various incarnations of MOVER ever make
their way out of whatever dark, dank, and moldy dungeon they
crawled out of ??...    STOP !!...  you're right...  at this point, it is
(fast, I hope) becoming history;  ve don't vant to no....

Ken "now just ONE version of LZW on his system" Sletten