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So this renders the venerable mainstay of Mac file compression, Stuffit, obsolete and superfluous, right? Well, not exactly. Stuffit still has a substantial advantage in compression efficiency. As a comparison test, I compressed the same 312k folder containing half a dozen text documents using the built-in Panther archive command and Stuffit Standard 8.2 DropStuff respectively. As you can see from the Get Info screenshots, the Stuffit .sitx file is considerably smaller than the zip archive. If small file size is a priority, Stuffit is still the way to go.
On the other hand, Panther's built-in archive function is faster than DropStuff, and it's always there for instant use, and .zip archives are certain to be openable by your PC-using friends, while lots of PC owners don't have Stuffit.
Bottom line; for speed and convenience, or for file sharing with the dark side go with Panther's archive function; for the smallest file size go with Stuffit.
Also today, I have a conundrum. For years I've had the F5 key specified to toggle an all caps text conversion AppleScript in Tex Edit Plus, but ever since installing Panther on my iBook, when I hit F5, the computer starts reading my document to me. In order to get it to shut up, I have to open Activity Monitor and use the quit command (the process syntax is something like "command line speak").
I've determined that this is not a Tex Edit Plus issue. The same behavior manifests if I press F5 in OS X Text Edit, but I'm baffled as to what actually is happening. No such issue exists on my PowerBook, also running Panther 10.3.2.
If anyone out there has any suggestions, aside from the obvious one of using a different key, I'd be grateful to hear them.
Tags: OSX Odyssey ď
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Hi Charles!
It is possible to add an F5 shortcut to the “Services>Speech>Start Speaking Text” command. Add the shortcut in System Preferences>Keyboard&Mouse;>Keyboard Shortcuts and log out/in. I tried it and it worked!
Actually, the Keyboard Shortcuts pref is a nice Mac feature since it makes it easy to put some of those unused Fkeys to work.
I don’t know how this pref could have gotten changed without you knowing it, but at least it would explain the symptom. (Maybe someone had a little too much sugar that day...)
Anyway, please let us know when you discover the real cause and keep up the great work!