3 ms·

Well, any patents would have expired by now, right? So how could they stop a clean-room re-implementation? (That is, one person/team describes the format, anoth

by gnud 6y ago

Well, any patents would have expired by now, right? So how could they stop a clean-room re-implementation? (That is, one person/team describes the format, another person/team implements a decoder from the description).

foota 6y ago
Compression isn't super complicated generally. I bet with a good number of input output samples it wouldn't be hard to reverse engineer. In that case, you wouldn't even need the two teams.
- ksherlock 6y ago
  Draw a Venn diagram of people who 1. have the interest to do it 2. have the skill to do it 3. have the time to do it.
  - viraptor 6y ago
    It doesn't have to be one person. If 1 is strong enough and related to revenue in some way, 2/3 can be solved by throwing money at the right people.
    - jrochkind1 6y ago
      How much revenue are you thinking there is in converting archive files from Stuffit versions 4 and 5 (released 1995-1997) to Stuffit version 3.5 (originally released 1994). As far as I know, neither has been commonly used since the release of MacOS X in 2001 (I mean, older Mac OS machines were surely being used for several years after that too, but it's been a while). It does not seem like a particularly likely revenue opportunity. Like most other archaic orphaned file formats, with a few exceptions. I'm not totally sure who the audience is for this hobby project even! It says people running Mac OS System 6, which was released in 1988, replaced by System 7 in 1991. (If you were running System 7,or system 8 released in 97, or system 9 released in 99 -- you wouldn't need this converter). I do wonder who these people are running a 1988 Mac OS release, on what hardware, and what they are doing! A Mac OS System 6 machine CAN connect to the internet, but barely, I think this may have been the first version that did TCP/IP built into the OS, but it was finnicky. It got a lot more solid in System 7.
      - kalleboo 6y ago
        TCP/IP wasn't bundled with the OS until System 7.5 (in 1994), before that it was sold separately ($60!)
        jrochkind1 6y ago
        thanks for correction!
    - jononor 6y ago
      This makes me think. Are there consultancy shops (or individuals) that specialize in reversing/opening file formats/protocols etc?
      - viraptor 6y ago
        There's a bit of that happening in security research, so in that way, yes. A quick search suggests that they exist independently as well, for example http://www.noat.com/ http://www.noat.com/

by gnud 6y ago

foota 6y ago

Compression isn't super complicated generally. I bet with a good number of input output samples it wouldn't be hard to reverse engineer. In that case, you wouldn't even need the two teams.

ksherlock 6y ago
Draw a Venn diagram of people who 1. have the interest to do it 2. have the skill to do it 3. have the time to do it.
- viraptor 6y ago
  It doesn't have to be one person. If 1 is strong enough and related to revenue in some way, 2/3 can be solved by throwing money at the right people.
  - jrochkind1 6y ago
    How much revenue are you thinking there is in converting archive files from Stuffit versions 4 and 5 (released 1995-1997) to Stuffit version 3.5 (originally released 1994). As far as I know, neither has been commonly used since the release of MacOS X in 2001 (I mean, older Mac OS machines were surely being used for several years after that too, but it's been a while). It does not seem like a particularly likely revenue opportunity. Like most other archaic orphaned file formats, with a few exceptions. I'm not totally sure who the audience is for this hobby project even! It says people running Mac OS System 6, which was released in 1988, replaced by System 7 in 1991. (If you were running System 7,or system 8 released in 97, or system 9 released in 99 -- you wouldn't need this converter). I do wonder who these people are running a 1988 Mac OS release, on what hardware, and what they are doing! A Mac OS System 6 machine CAN connect to the internet, but barely, I think this may have been the first version that did TCP/IP built into the OS, but it was finnicky. It got a lot more solid in System 7.
    - kalleboo 6y ago
      TCP/IP wasn't bundled with the OS until System 7.5 (in 1994), before that it was sold separately ($60!)
      - jrochkind1 6y ago
        thanks for correction!
  - jononor 6y ago
    This makes me think. Are there consultancy shops (or individuals) that specialize in reversing/opening file formats/protocols etc?
    - viraptor 6y ago
      There's a bit of that happening in security research, so in that way, yes. A quick search suggests that they exist independently as well, for example http://www.noat.com/ http://www.noat.com/