DiskDoubler Test Files

This repository contains a collection of minimal, legally redistributable DiskDoubler archives suitable for inclusion in test suites for programs that incorporate DiskDoubler extraction functionality.

See Also: StuffIt Test Files, RAR Test Files

Explain

Since there are no free tools I know of for creating DiskDoubler archives, and it's important to be able to integration-test systems that use lsar and unar from The Unarchiver's open-source command-line tools to process legacy archives, I decided to step up and create some legally redistributable DiskDoubler archives.

Contents

The loose files are DiskDoubler-compressed data forks, as should be extractable using a non-Macintosh tool such as the The Unarchiver's CLI tools, though this only appears to be true for DiskDoubler 3.7.7, with The Unarchiver CLI tools v1.10.1 being very hit-or-miss about supporting DiskDoubler Pro 4.1.1's formats no matter how they're packaged.

(Confirmed to be the fault of The Unarchiver CLI tools because it says the container checksum for the BinHex-encoded ones is correct but then says the contained archive is corrupt, while copying it back to my mac and unpacking it there using the official code works flawlessly.)

The .dd files are archives created using DiskDoubler 3.7.7's "Combine" option or DiskDoubler Pro 4.1.1's "Create Archive" option and are created directly from the uncompressed source files, not from the DiskDoubler-compressed individual files.

Files ending in .1 and .2 are copies of the files with the same names minus the numeric extension, split into pieces using DiskDoubler's apparently proprietary "Split" option which The Unarchiver CLI tools v1.10.1 can't make heads or tails of either directly or when manually cated together.

The StuffIt archives are complete (data fork, resource fork, HFS creator and type codes) representations of the individually DiskDoubler-compressed files in the following formats, compressed using the copy of StuffIt Deluxe 4.5 (for DiskDoubler 3.7.7) or 6.5.1 (for DiskDoubler Pro 4.1.1) which I purchased for my StuffIt Test Files repository and confirmed to be extractable using The Unarchiver's CLI tools as built from source for the Ubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS package repository.

The meaning of the shorthand in folder and archive names is as follows:

• dd377.ad: DiskDoubler 3.7.7, AutoDoubler A compression
• dd377.ads: DiskDoubler 3.7.7, AutoDoubler B compression
• dd377.dda: DiskDoubler 3.7.7, DiskDoubler A compression
• dd377.ddb: DiskDoubler 3.7.7, DiskDoubler B compression
• ddpro41.ad1: DiskDoubler Pro 4.1.1, AD1 compression
• ddpro41.ad2: DiskDoubler Pro 4.1.1, AD2 compression
• ddpro41.dd1: DiskDoubler Pro 4.1.1, DD1 compression
• ddpro41.dd2: DiskDoubler Pro 4.1.1, DD2 compression
• ddpro41.dd3: DiskDoubler Pro 4.1.1, DD3 compression
• .prompt.sea: Same as a .sea file (self-extracting archive), but configured to prompt for where to extract the files.

The source files are the same public domain ones created for my StuffIt Test Files repository, with a fresh set being extracted from sources.sit on my Power Mac G4 for each variant of DiskDoubler compression.

"How Do I Know These Are Legal?"

First, the contents are the same test files I created from scratch and released into the public domain for my RAR test files and StuffIt Test Files repositories, plus a TIFF file converted from the PNG file using a copy of GraphicConverter 5.9.5 for Classic MacOS that has been registered using a license key now given away for free by the original developer.

• My copy of DiskDoubler 3.7.7 was purchased as sealed New Old Stock on eBay.

• My copy of DiskDoubler Pro 4.1.1 (or v1.1 as the print on the floppy label calls it) had been removed from its box but, aside from that, was complete and the perforated "by opening this, you accept the license" bag around the floppy was unopened.

• The used copy of StuffIt Deluxe 4.5 on the drive I installed DiskDoubler 3.7.7 to was purchased on eBay and has a passage in its license that allows for the transfer of the license:

  3. OTHER RESTRICTIONS. You may not rent or lease the SOFTWARE, but you may transfer the SOFTWARE and accompanying written materials on a permanent basis provided you retain no copies and the recipient agrees to the terms of this agreement. [...]

• The used copy of StuffIt Deluxe 6.5.1 on the drive I installed DiskDoubler Pro 4.1.1 onto (and used for BinHexing the DiskDoubler 3.7.7 files) doesn't explicitly say the license is transferable, but doesn't say anything to the contrary and it should be implicit in the passage I've bolded here:

  The Software is owned by Aladdin Systems and is protected by United States copyright laws and international treaty provisions. Therefore, you must treat the Software like any other copyrighted material (e.g., a book or musical recording). Paying the license fee allows you the right to use one copy of the Software on a single computer. You may not network the Software or otherwise use it or make it available for use on more than one computer at the same time. You may not rent or lease the Software, nor may you modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software. If you violate any part of this agreement, your right to use this Software terminates automatically and you must then destroy all copies of the Software in your possession.

All are running on a genuine Power Mac G4 Quicksilver 2002 which I own:

(Yeah. eBay's international tracking can be flaky on the destination leg of the journey.)

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Future Plans

• The option to create a self-extracting archive with DiskDoubler 3.7.7 seems to only be available via the INIT which crashes Finder under MacOS 9. Revisit this when I have a Macintosh capable of running System 6 or 7.
• Keep an eye out for any older copies of DiskDoubler which implement the "Old B" compression listed in DiskDoubler 3.7.7's Convert dialog and, while I'm very skeptical that I'll ever see one, let alone at a price I can afford, there's also a greyed out "Sigma" compression which apparently had something to do with the DoubleUp NuBus hardware accelerator.

Also, unfortunately, pages 6-5 and 6-6 of the DiskDoubler Pro manual seem to imply that that redistribution of the AutoDoubler Internal Compressor expansion stub requires a special license, even if you don't bypass the lockout on running AIC-compressed programs on a system without AutoDoubler installed, so it looks like I won't be able to add an AIC-compressed "Hello, World!" program to this repository.

(They only explicitly say that use is restricted and to decompress AIC-compressed files before distributing, but copyright operates on a "default deny" basis.)

License

By design, the files within the archives have been created from scratch and are minimally novel in the hope that they will be ineligible for copyright.

I hereby release anything in these archives that I do hold copyright to into the public domain using the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.

To the extent possible under law, Stephan Sokolow has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to DiskDoubler Test Files. This work is published from: Canada.