DataCom Shareware Review

Shez 

There were times during the hectic month of January when I wondered if Phil
Katz could have foreseen the tremendous impact that PKZIP v2.04C, and later
v2.04E and v2.04G, would have on the way we work.  Not that I object; I gloat
every time I see how much smaller my new .ZIP files are than the old ones.

Perhaps the biggest impact on me was that with the introduction of v2.04 I
lost the arcing-unarcing services of my all-time favorite program, XTree Gold.
XTree Gold is a super deluxe DOS shell, which among many other useful things,
permits arcing and unarcing files very easily using PKZIP v1.10.  I was not a
happy camper when I found that XTree was not upwardly compatible with the new
PKWARE programs.  So I spent much of January searching for the perfect shell
to do what I can't do with XTree Gold anymore.

My January shell hunt revealed that many of the currently avalable shells are
not comaptible with the new PKZIP and showed little promise of getting that
way soon.  The few that were upwardly compatible seemed to zip and unzip
awkwardly compared to my beloved XTree Gold.  Then Shez v8.4 appeared,
followed in close order by v8.5 through v8.9 and a new day dawned!  Then v9.0
appeared with some new features, one of which unfortunately was a bug that had
a tendency to trash hard drives when files were unzipped and then rezipped.
Fortunately, the bug was discovered early, and the word was spread around the
world that v9.0 was a bad actor and should be removed from all BBS's.  It is
much to Jim Derr's credit that v9.0A appeared in very short order with a bug
fix.  There have been no further problems reported, to the  best of my
knowledge.

What sets Shez apart from a lot of other shells is that:

       a. Extract directories can be defined AND CREATED on the fly from
          the "Extract" menu.

       b. Text files within an archive can be viewed without extracting
          them. (Actually they are extracted to a temporary file which goes
          away when the viewer is exited.)

       c. Shez will work with ZIP, ARC, LZH, ZOO, PAK, and ARJ compression
          formats, and will not only convert among these formats, but will
          also convert to SFX self-extracting format.

       d. All user operations can be performed smoothly and easily once you
          figure out what to ignore.


One of the really nice touches is that Shez will shell to McAfee's SCAN for
virus checking.  Also, it is worth knowing that Shez will perform a host of
file management functions in addition to its archival duties.  Another good
feature is the tutorial that is available as a separate file.  I recommend the
tutorial to novices and veterans alike.

Configuration is not difficult although it can be a little tedious.  With some
judicious color choices, the appearance of the screens can be improved vastly
from the generic looking default blue-on-cyan.  Also, specifying paths for the
ancillary programs can be just a little tricky.

After living with Shez for a few months, I'm  wondering how I lived for so long
without it.  Necessity is the mother of invention, and Jim Derr's invention has
turned out to be a necessity for me.  Confidentially, I think I'm beginning to
like it better than XTree!

Shez v9.0A Filenames:  SHEZ90A.ZIP, SHEZTUT.ZIP
Registration Fee: $$
California Software Design
James Derr
P. O. Box 15248
Santa Rosa, CA 95402
(707) 575-9868 
     
Author's Note:  Since this review was written, early in 1993, Shez has
                evolved to v9.4, whose method of operation is essentially
                the same as described here.  XTree Gold v3.0 has also been
                released, and it is compatible with PKZIP v2.04G.  However,
                I've learned to rely on Shez so much that I'm keeping it
                around.  