.dmg.sea
Posted March 27th, 2003 @ 03:29pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Someone today emailed me (I'll keep his name and MUG out of this) to ask to distribute Recent Tunes, some Freshly Squeezed Software freeware, to his MUG. I granted the approval, but took issue with part of his email:
We compress the programs as self-extracting archives (sea) in order to save space and reduce the amount of entries into our CD cataloging program. Also, we do this so our members do not have to have a separate program to unstuff the archives.
Funny, but our .dmg files are already compressed, use a tool on every Mac (Disk Copy), and are for Mac OS X, whereas .sea files only operate in 9 or Classic (right?). I told him that he could distribute our file as a .dmg only. Self-Extracting Archives? No reason to cling to those things. DMG is the way to go on X.
Donate Life
Posted 27 Mar 2003 at 3:46pm #
He wrote back saying "It is still a dmg, but it doesn't show it until you decompress the sea."
To this I replied:
You may not distribute our software as a .sea.
.sea's decompress only on 9, and on my own computer, for example, I have not had Mac OS 9 installed for over two years.
Distribute our software as the .dmg itself, and nothing else, or don't distribute it. You're doing a disservice to us and your readership if you force them to use Classic or Mac OS 9 to get at software that only runs on Mac OS X.
Posted 27 Mar 2003 at 3:56pm #
If I recall correctly, StuffIt Expander can expand .sea files. Just drop the file on its icon. No need to use Classic.
But you are totally right, no need to use .sea either. 🙂
Posted 27 Mar 2003 at 5:21pm #
Funny--I actually got (I'm pretty sure) the same email about distributing one of my apps! It's weird, but I don't really care how they distribute it.
At least they asked permission--I've seen other MUGs distribute my app without even notifying me!
Posted 27 Mar 2003 at 10:36pm #
Why not suggest tar.gz or something? It has good compression.
Posted 28 Mar 2003 at 7:23am #
.sea can be handled by StuffIT (expander or deluxe) but it does not change the fact that the benefits to the user are quite slim.
Posted 28 Mar 2003 at 7:57am #
Why use .tar.gz? Tar doesn't compress - it simply collects - and .dmgs use gzip compression. C'mon, you knew that Jeff.