FrontPAQ - GUI frontend for PAQ8PF and PAQ8PX

**LovePimple** · 7th September 2009, 23:40

FrontPAQ is a GUI frontend for PAQ8PF and PAQ8PX.

Home page: http://inshame.blogspot.com/

Modified version by moisesmcardona.

Originally Posted by moisesmcardona

FrontPAQ is a GUI Frontend for the PAQ8PX and PAQ8PF Series. It can display the progress of compression in a nice progress bar with detailed information like showing the ETA and the KBs processed.

Originally, FrontPAQ was developed by "Konstantinos Asimakis" but I made some changes on this nice Frontend for PAQ.

Mods over the original version:
FrontPAQ v2
-Uses PAQ8PX v64
-Does not use a Temp. Folder

FrontPAQ v3
-Uses PAQ8PF Beta 1

FrontPAQ v5
-Uses PAQ8PX v66
-Uses PAQ8PF Beta 3
-Used the FrontPAQ v4 sorce code and PAQ versions are integrated into the exe

FrontPAQ v6
-Uses PAQ8PX v67

The modified version is attached.

**LovePimple** · 10th September 2009, 22:29

FrontPAQpf is a modified version for use with PAQ8PF.

EDIT: Attachment removed (Latest version of FrontPAQ now supports PAQ8PF by default).

**PiPPoNe92** · 11th September 2009, 12:14

ok, but the progress bar don't go..why?
(I have windows xp).

**moisesmcardona** · 11th September 2009, 13:15

Originally Posted by PiPPoNe92

ok, but the progress bar don't go..why?
(I have windows xp).

because it is not updated in real time. If you compress a folder with just one file, then the progressbar will not be updated. If you have more than 1 file, the statistics and progressbar will be updated once the first file is compressed.

**Tritonio** · 23rd October 2009, 06:00

Originally Posted by PiPPoNe92

ok, but the progress bar don't go..why?
(I have windows xp).

Hello everybody! This is my first post. I saw some people coming to my blog form the forum and moisesmcardona and learned about FrontPAQ's modified versions. This is the first time that somebody modifies my sources and I am very happy about it.

Now that I know that people actually care about FrontPAQ I think I will make some improvements:

Make the progress bar move smoothly and not refresh on the end of every file.
I thought that the embedded PAQ was better because most people nowadays want stand-alone signle-EXE applications but being able to update the compressor without recompiling FrontPAQ seems useful too so I am asking you what you prefer:
1. Not having an embedded version and use any PAQ*.exe in the same directory or...
2. ... having an embedded version which will be used when no PAQ*.exe exists in the directory?
Currently I try by default to use all the free RAM minus 6% of the total RAM. Does anybody think that this should change?
Change the default compressor. Which one should I distribute in the zipfile? (or embedded in FrontPAQ of course)

Also if you have any other ideas or have found bugs you can either post them here or as a comment here.

I will start working on it tomorrow so start sending suggestions if you want. I will also update the old blog post with links to this thread and moisesmcardona's website.

Many thanks moisesmcardona for the mods!

**Tritonio** · 27th October 2009, 13:25

[EDIT: I found a bug but I don't have the time to fix it now. I'll post again in 6 hours or more the fixed version.]

OK a new version is ready. I'll call it v4 since v2 and v3 were used by moises but this one is based on v1.
New features:

The progress bar moves very smoothly.
FrontPAQ doesn't have a folder selection dialog if run it. Instead it displays how to use it which now changed: you drag and drop things on it. That way you can have it on your Desktop or you can have a shortcut in the quick launch and use it easily by dragging directories on it.
You can also compress files by drag'n'drop, not just directories. ETA and speed is calculated for them too.
It will search the directory where it is stored for PAQ8PX*.exe compressors and use the first one if available. If not it will temporarily export the embedded one in its directory. If its directory is read-only (eg CDROM) it will use the system temp instead. The embedded one is PAQ8PX.exe 32bit.
It now gives proper advice when the "tmpfile: access denied" error is encountered. (reboot or run as admin)

I am still testing it but it seems quite stable. Anybody wanna test it?

BTW decompression is not done in a GUI. You just drag any *.paq8px file on it and it will open a console to decompress it. I still don't know hoe to handle the "identical" and other messages. I will have to write a full GUI in AutoIt to display those correctly while currently i simply use the Progress*() functions and some inputbox() and msgbox(). Also I don't know if I can calculate the ETA when decompressing since I don't know the uncompressed size. Or do I do?

**PiPPoNe92** · 27th October 2009, 22:06

Where can I download your version?

**Tritonio** · 28th October 2009, 00:23

Originally Posted by PiPPoNe92

Where can I download your version?

I think I fixed the bugs and I also added one more feature. It now has two PAQ versions embedded: one for 32bit and one for 64bit and it uses them accordingly. But it seems that these versions are quite different. For example the 32bit version is much bigger and also produces bigger files than the 64bit version at the same level (or at least at their respective default levels).

So I need to find two versions to embed in FrontPAQ. I will look around the forum but I really need some advice on which versions should I use.

I am looking for two compatible versions, one for 32bit OSes and one for 64bit that will support most modern CPUs. I am looking at the PAQ8PX thread but I find hundreds of versions...

**Black_Fox** · 28th October 2009, 02:57

There are 64-bit compiles of PAQ here?

**Tritonio** · 28th October 2009, 03:48

Originally Posted by Black_Fox

There are 64-bit compiles of PAQ here?

Yes you can see them in the benchmarks. I don't know if you can download them from this forum. I supposed yes. But I took my 64bit version from the modified FrontPAQ by moises. Oh now I realize that that 64 might not be 64bit but instead version 64. Hmmm. Dunno. I'll check back tomorrow if anybody answers here. Else I will just check my exe's with processexplorer. Goodnight for now.

**Black_Fox** · 28th October 2009, 05:47

If you mean paq8px_v64, then that's version

There's so many mentions of it not because it's 64-bit but because it's the latest version.

**LovePimple** · 28th October 2009, 15:28

Originally Posted by Tritonio

I think I fixed the bugs and I also added one more feature. It now has two PAQ versions embedded: one for 32bit and one for 64bit and it uses them accordingly. But it seems that these versions are quite different. For example the 32bit version is much bigger and also produces bigger files than the 64bit version at the same level (or at least at their respective default levels).

So I need to find two versions to embed in FrontPAQ. I will look around the forum but I really need some advice on which versions should I use.

I am looking for two compatible versions, one for 32bit OSes and one for 64bit that will support most modern CPUs. I am looking at the PAQ8PX thread but I find hundreds of versions...

Version 64 is the latest version of PAQ8PX. The original source code was released by Jan Ondrus on the 17th August 2009. Since the release of the source code several compiled versions have been released by various third parties including myself. My own paq8px.exe is the only one compiled with GCC using options recommended by Matt Mahoney. Most other versions are speed optimised versions which may not produce identical archives. All current compiles are 32-bit, and as far as I'm aware no 64-bit version has ever been released.

You can download all available compiles in one archive here. Thanks to Skymmer for combining all current compiles in one .7z archive.

**LovePimple** · 28th October 2009, 15:57

Originally Posted by Tritonio

Hello everybody! This is my first post. I saw some people coming to my blog form the forum and moisesmcardona and learned about FrontPAQ's modified versions. This is the first time that somebody modifies my sources and I am very happy about it.

Now that I know that people actually care about FrontPAQ I think I will make some improvements:

Make the progress bar move smoothly and not refresh on the end of every file.
I thought that the embedded PAQ was better because most people nowadays want stand-alone signle-EXE applications but being able to update the compressor without recompiling FrontPAQ seems useful too so I am asking you what you prefer:
1. Not having an embedded version and use any PAQ*.exe in the same directory or...
2. ... having an embedded version which will be used when no PAQ*.exe exists in the directory?
Currently I try by default to use all the free RAM minus 6% of the total RAM. Does anybody think that this should change?
Change the default compressor. Which one should I distribute in the zipfile? (or embedded in FrontPAQ of course)

Also if you have any other ideas or have found bugs you can either post them here or as a comment here.
<snip>

Please add support for both PAQ8PX and PAQ8PF.

**Tritonio** · 28th October 2009, 21:32

OK thank you for all your answers. I got the PAQ8PX from LovePimple's compilations, the speed optimized one to be exact. I also removed the 64bit detection. Doh... I also embedded both PX and PF versions. On decompression the correct one is detected and used based on the extension. On compression by default PX is used but you can use PF by appending F at the level selection dialog. Of course you can still put another external PAQ8P* compressor in FrontPAQ's dir and it will use it instead (in this case even the decompression will be always done with the external compressor).

Any ideas about the "tmpfile: access denied" error? It seems that PAQ uses a tempfile on the root of c:\ and this sometimes doesn't work unless I run it as admin which is annoying. Can this be because I compress PAQs with before embedding them? I mean is there a problem with UPXing PAQ8P(X/F)?

I am testing it now and I hope I will post it today at laaaast!

**Tritonio** · 28th October 2009, 22:18

OK here it is! It's quite possible that you'll find some bugs but anyway I've already delayed it so much. All suggestions have been implemented I think so now I'll test it thoroughly and post back... Hope you like it!

PS: There is a small bug which I don't know how to fix yet easily. If you compress something with PAQ8PX and then again the same something with PAQ8PF the compression ratio cannot be calculated correctly unless you have deleted the first compressed file.

**LovePimple** · 30th October 2009, 02:48

Thanks!

**moisesmcardona** · 30th October 2009, 04:13

Hello all,

I have updated FrontPAQ to v5. This release updates the PAQ compression engines. It now uses PAQ8PX v66 and PAQ8PF Beta 3.

For some reason, the FP.ico is not added as the icon for FrontPAQ. I have it in the same folder where the source code is. Any Ideas?

Download it from my website here:
http://moises-studios.110mb.com/Downloads/Downloads.htm

Enjoy!

**LovePimple** · 30th October 2009, 04:27

Originally Posted by moisesmcardona

For some reason, the FP.ico is not added as the icon for FrontPAQ. I have it in the same folder where the source code is. Any Ideas?

Did you use the "Custom Icon (.ico file)" option when compiling with aut2exe?

**Tritonio** · 30th October 2009, 04:42

Originally Posted by moisesmcardona

Hello all,

I have updated FrontPAQ to v5. This release updates the PAQ compression engines. It now uses PAQ8PX v66 and PAQ8PF Beta 3.

For some reason, the FP.ico is not added as the icon for FrontPAQ. I have it in the same folder where the source code is. Any Ideas?

Download it from my website here:
http://moises-studios.110mb.com/Downloads/Downloads.htm

Enjoy!

Moises it seems AutoIt has some problems following the wrapper instructions like the one I included in v4. In v1 I had to compile with the aut2exe program which allows you to select an icon. In v4 I included the wrapper instruction to set the icon and know i can compile it correctly by rightclicking->compile. I don't know why it doesn't work for you. It's strange.

In any case you can still use aut2exe to compile it with the icon manually.

Maybe I should make a new icon too. :-P The F looks like a press so I could use that. I don't know what am I going to do with P, maybe I'll discard it.

BTW has has anybody found any bugs?

**moisesmcardona** · 30th October 2009, 05:16

Originally Posted by Tritonio

Moises it seems AutoIt has some problems following the wrapper instructions like the one I included in v4. In v1 I had to compile with the aut2exe program which allows you to select an icon. In v4 I included the wrapper instruction to set the icon and know i can compile it correctly by rightclicking->compile. I don't know why it doesn't work for you. It's strange.

In any case you can still use aut2exe to compile it with the icon manually.

Maybe I should make a new icon too. :-P The F looks like a press so I could use that. I don't know what am I going to do with P, maybe I'll discard it.

BTW has has anybody found any bugs?

Ok. So it seems I have to use the aut2exe. Thanks for the tip (actually, I compile scripts on the Scite editor all the time so I did not knew about the aut2exe)

**moisesmcardona** · 7th November 2009, 01:33

Hello all,

I have recently released FrontPAQ v6

The only difference is that this version use PAQ8PX v67.

you can download this version here:
http://moises-studios.110mb.com/Programas/FrontPAQ.html

Enjoy PAQ Compression with PAQ8PX v67!

------------------Off-Topic---------------------
PerfectCompress v6.01 has also been released! Read the PerfectCompress topic for more info.

**moisesmcardona** · 18th February 2010, 01:16

Hello all,

It has been several months since the last release of FrontPAQ.

In this release, I replaced the PAQ8PX compressor with PAQ8KX v7.

Changelog:

Code:

-Replaced PAQ8PX with PAQ8KX
-Uses PAQ8KX v7
(Note: For this release, you must copy the FrontPAQ.exe to the folder where the files or folders to be compressed are located. Otherwise, the software will throw an error. This is a PAQ8KX related problem which also is found on PAQ8PX v68 and later releases)

Note that for the PAQ8KX Compressor to work, you must copy the FrontPAQ.exe to the folder where the files or folders to be compressed are located. Otherwise, the software will give an error)

Download for this version can be found on my site:
http://moises-studios.110mb.com/Programas/FrontPAQ.html

Enjoy!

**moisesmcardona** · 16th January 2011, 23:43

Hello everyone!

Today I released FrontPAQ v8!
This update brings 3 features and 2 fixes.

Changelog is posted below:

Code:

-Can extract PAQ8PX v69, PAQ8PF Beta 3, and FP8 archives!
-PAQ8KX removed, now using PAQ8PX v69 for compression.
-There are 2 fast modes! Write PF to use PAQ8PF, or FP to use FP8 after the compression level.
-when compressing a file or a folder with just 1 file, the word "files" is displayed in singular.
-Fixed the incorrect ratio bug!

This version fixes the incorrect ratio bug which was due to the following wrong line:

Code:

$compressedsize=FileGetSize($cmdline[1] & ".paq8px") + FileGetSize($cmdline[1] & ".paq8pf")

Basically, that line will add the size of the PAQ8PX and the size of the PAQ8PF files, so I fixed it by using the following line:

Code:

$compressedsize=FileGetSize($cmdline[1] & $paqext)

I declared $paqext as Global, then under "Func SelectLevel()" I added the the corresponding paq extension. This is how the section that I modified looks like:

Code:

If StringUpper(StringRight($level,2))=="PF" Then
	$ver2use="fast"
	$level=StringTrimRight($level,2)
	$levelsaysfast=True
	$paqext=".paq8pf"
elseif StringUpper(StringRight($level,2))=="FP" Then
	$ver2use="fp"
	$level=StringTrimRight($level,2)
	$levelsaysfast=False
	$paqext=".fp8"
Else
	$ver2use="px"
	$levelsaysfast=False
	$paqext=".paq8px"
EndIf

Enjoy this new version!

**moisesmcardona** · 25th June 2013, 20:34

Hello everyone,

Since my 110mb website came down, I made a better site.
The new download section for this software is available at:
http://moises-studios.com/?q=FrontPAQDownloads

**moisesmcardona** · 10th January 2019, 22:36

Since this is a GNU Public License project, can it be hosted at GitHub? I'm gonna improve the script to work on the newer PAQ8PX versions

EDIT: Decided to just update PAQCompress. Just added Drag-and-drop to it

**kaitz** · 17th January 2019, 00:11

In paq8pxd compression progress will go to stderr. In your program it will not show it, so no real indication how much progress has been made.

**moisesmcardona** · 17th January 2019, 14:36

Originally Posted by kaitz

In paq8pxd compression progress will go to stderr. In your program it will not show it, so no real indication how much progress has been made.

Try using PAQCompress. It redirects both stdout and stderr.
https://github.com/moisesmcardona/PAQCompress

Edit: progress will not be shown if the to_screen variable is set to false. I tried compiling paq8pxd but it gave me some errors. If you can provide me with some Instructions on how to compile it, it will be greatly appreciated. I need to update it with the same changes I did for paq8px

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