November 10, 1998 by Misha Sakellaropoulo SRP: $79.95,   Upgrade: $29.95 Aladdin Systems Stuffit Deluxe Download Stuffit Expander 5.0 System Requirements: 68020 or better, System 7.5.3 - Mac OS 8.5 Pros: still the best, new Maximum Compression, improved multitasking, Mac Binary III support Cons: Maximum Compression takes a fair bit longer, Fast Compression is slower than Stuffit 4.5 and less efficient, True Finder Integration still monopolizes your Mac as it works

   Stuffit Deluxe has long been the compression tool of choice for Macintosh users and over the years this robust utility has gone through a good number of upgrades. With the recent launch of Mac OS 8.5 comes Stuffit Deluxe 5.0, which, among other things, offers greater compatiblity with the new operating system. Although a number of smaller features have been added to Stuffit Deluxe, what distinguishes version 5.0 from its predecessors is a new Stuffit compression technology which Aladdin touts as increasing compression by about 20% over previous versions.

From the bottom up

   If you have never used Stuffit Deluxe before, chances are that you've been using its sibling utilities Stuffit Expander and DropStuff. Apart from boasting a convenient all-in-one application that gives you stuffing, expanding, and decoding features, to name a few, Stuffit Deluxe is also tightly integrated with the OS, making all those tasks a lot easier to perform.

   True Finder Integration (TFI), a control panel, adds the Stuffit MagicMenu to the Finder from where you can stuff and expand files. It can also work with your desired email program, allowing you to select a file, choose Stuff and Mail (or simply Mail) and in seconds your mail program is loaded and a new email is created with the file attached. Stuffit Deluxe 5.0 also gives you the option of making an archive self-extracting (and vice versa) as well as verifying the file's integrity and encoding the file into Mac Binary III or BinHex.

   TFI also gives you the option of expanding an archive simply by deleting the ".sit" or ".sea" portion of the file's name or stuffing a file by either adding ".sit" or ".sea." 5.0 now allows you to also encode the archive using a similar technique. Adding ".sit.bin" for example will stuff the file and encode it with Mac Binary III.

   Finally, TFI features a contextual menu module that puts all the features of the MagicMenu a control-click away. Of course, you'll probably pick your preferred TFI method and ignore the other ones, although it's convenient to have so many options, none of which are confusing or conflict with anything else.

   Unfortunately, the biggest flaw in TFI remains in Stuffit Deluxe 5.0. If you use a TFI method to manipulate a file, it remains in the foreground, making it impossible for you to accomplish other tasks while it works. CM Tools 3.0, a contextual menu module, can overcome this limitation because it launches the Stuffit Expander or DropStuff applications from the contextual menu rather than immediately stuffing or expanding the archive. On the plus side, if you choose to stuff or expand a file through Stuffit Deluxe or Stuffit Expander 5.0, it now works at an adequate speed in the background, compared to the snail's pace it worked at under 4.5.

   Stuffit Browser allows you to open stuffit archives as if they were folders and browse them, as well as add files. However, one major flaw exists with it. If you open an archive through the Stuffit Browser, regardless of whether you changed anything, when you close it the date modified will change. This poses a problem for users who use backup software that checks the date modified strings, as they'll lose time as the backup software recopies the supposedly "new" version. Also, the actual task of browsing is slow because the windows take considerably longer to open than regular windows. FinderPop, a shareware control panel, can browse Stuffit archives much faster since it overcomes the slow-window limitation.

The new compression scheme

   Stuffit Deluxe 5.0 adds an "Aladdin Compression" control panel that allows you toggle between the traditional stuffing method, now called Fast Compression, and the newer method known as Maximum Compression, which is completely compatible with previous version of Stuffit. Naturally, Maximum Compression takes longer; but disappointingly, Fast Compression isn't nearly as fast as it was under Stuffit 4.5, perhaps due to the improved multitasking code which always seems to slow things down. Also interestingly, despite the fact that Aladdin claims that Fast Compression uses the same traditional method that Stuffit Deluxe used, when compressing a number of files into one archive, it ends being larger under 5.0 than 4.5.

	4.5	5.0, Fast Compression	5.0, Max. Compression
1,132 items, 49.3 MB
Time (min:sec)	1:20	2:18	3:16
Stuffed File Size	8.5 MB	8.8 MB	8.3 MB
66.4 MB Photoshop file
Time (min:sec)	:40	3:25	11:13
Stuffed File Size	27.5 MB	27.5 MB	20 MB

PowerLogix G3 333 (2:1), HFS formatted drive

   The new Maximum Compression format is especially slower when working with large individual files. While the benefits of maximum compression are clear for anyone who transfers files over the web, the losses in speed will inevitably offset the benefits for many. In that case, it may be a wiser decision for current Stuffit Deluxe 4.5 owners to stick with that version, which proved to be the speediest under Mac OS 8.5.

Better in some respects...

   Stuffit Deluxe remains an essential utility for anyone who transfers files or deals with such files on a regular basis. But if you own Stuffit Deluxe 4.5 and rarely transfer files over the web, or don't mind the extra wait, then the upgrade to 5.0 may not be worth it, especially since Stuffit Deluxe 4.5 has yet to exhibit any incompatibilities with Mac OS 8.5.