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Cranker by The Electronic Knights
[nfo]
screenshot added by elkmoose on 2016-08-30 13:32:32
platform :
type :
release date : august 2016
  • 27
  • 3
  • 0
popularity : 62%
 62%
  • 0.90
alltime top: #4079
added on the 2016-08-30 13:32:32 by elkmoose elkmoose

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Cranker is an Amiga executable cruncher.

It decrunches while loading and decrunching requires no additional
memory. Cranker is by far the fastest way to run large executables
from disk on old, unexpanded Amigas like Amiga 500, 600, and 2000.

please check the README (click the NFO link!)
added on the 2016-08-30 13:33:06 by elkmoose elkmoose
Titanics replacement is a nice idea but it should give at least a warning when then crunched binary is larger than the original uncrunched one as it just happened when I did a quick test. More than 1k for the decruncher is also quite a lot.
added on the 2016-08-30 13:47:10 by StingRay StingRay
Another problem: if output file is the same as the input file nothing will be saved and there is no error message either. Output looks like everything was done fine while in fact no crunched file was saved at all.
added on the 2016-08-30 13:51:08 by StingRay StingRay
just what i always wanted!! if it works as expected, you save me a ton of time, as i was planning something like that for a while (titanics is really obsolete and slow even on A4000).

anyway, how about exe for mac os? there are quite a few of us developing using that devil's os. ;)
i can help with the compile if needed.
added on the 2016-08-30 14:10:17 by bonefish bonefish
I too always wished someone would do one like this. Need to give it a try soon.
added on the 2016-08-30 15:23:04 by dodke dodke
Great initiative to make a fast and better packing Titanics cruncher replacement! :-D

As for the comparison in the README, it seems you are a bit out of touch concerning memory overhead. Shrinkler has had a low-overhead feature (the overlap option) for more than one and a half years by now. Using that, the memory overhead of Retro Dentro is 528 bytes - less than half that of Cranker. And it runs fine on 512+512. Shrinkler doesn't deallocate that memory, though, so if the demo needs to allocate absolutely all of the rest of memory after loading, Cranker wins.

Shrinkler-compressed executables also works fine with LoadSeg, provided A3 is set up to point to the loaded segment list, as all OS execution functions do. OK, I admit this is sort of obscure, and you have to read the official Shrinkler forum (or the code) to figure it out. Better documentation is needed on my part. In the end, those 4 bytes saved were probably not worth the hassle. :)

Finally, no Titanics cruncher replacement can be complete without the ability to print a "Decrunching while loading" text, but since this is version 0.1, I'll let you pass on that one for now. ;)
rulez added on the 2016-08-30 16:14:50 by Blueberry Blueberry
Amazing tool! Please, add the (configurable) loading-and-decrunching text and the warnings that Stingray pointed and this will be perfect!

This is great tool for classic OCS stuff!
rulez added on the 2016-08-30 16:21:43 by ham ham
@Blueberry: Sorry for putting down and kudos for Shrinkler. I will correct the docs. I didn't read yours as it seems. One reason for Cranker was that a particular Zymosis prod didn't work here: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=67945
I think there's a chance now this can be corrected by supplying a3 in the launcher and enabling the LoadSeg() option in the packmenu config.
@bonefish: OS X version: No problem, it's all ANSI C. Will get back to you, or contact me directly.
@StingRay: Thanks, will be corrected.
Timeframe for fixes and suggestions is next week at the earliest.
added on the 2016-08-30 17:15:14 by bifat bifat
tool thumbs
rulez added on the 2016-08-30 17:43:24 by sensenstahl sensenstahl
another tool thumb!
rulez added on the 2016-08-30 18:00:34 by mad mad
noble quest
rulez added on the 2016-08-30 20:06:18 by Fell Fell
Quote:
@Blueberry: Sorry for putting down

Not at all. You saw a problem and you did something about it. That's cool.
added on the 2016-08-30 20:38:22 by Blueberry Blueberry
Haven't tried it yet, but more options for crunching A500-releases are always welcome :)
rulez added on the 2016-08-30 20:48:09 by britelite britelite
The new OCS dedicated tool, long awaited Titanics replacement? Is he The One? Or a fair competition for the mighty Shrinkler? All sounds Gr8! Thanks for releasing it, already looking forward to all the updates of it! OCS stuff r0x!!!
rulez added on the 2016-08-30 23:00:38 by sachy sachy
No message displaying while loading and decrunching? No thumb until then ;)
added on the 2016-08-31 10:41:38 by Emod Emod
Most issues have been worked on, and the scope has been extended.
http://neoscientists.org/~bifat/binarydistillery/cranker-0.2.lha
Changes:
Added options for displaying text and to avoid poking to the bgcolor register. Incompressible hunks are being stored now. The source of the
decrunch header is now included and a custom header can be specified in the command line. This way you can use Cranker as a loader system, disable crunching in the commandline and just exploit async I/O to e.g. show an effect while loading.
Ofcoz, none of these nightshift results have been tested yet. :-)
added on the 2016-08-31 11:59:48 by bifat bifat
Nice update! :) Except for the warning when the crunched file is larger than the original file all the issues I found are fixed. Also, hooray for the TEXT option, excellent! :)
rulez added on the 2016-08-31 12:44:15 by StingRay StingRay
Complains about no FPU with FS-UAE emulating an 040 and no macOS binary. I'll thumb up when I manage to run it :)
added on the 2016-08-31 13:34:40 by dodke dodke
yeeeeees, we want/need macOS binary!!!! :))
compile offer still stands.
added on the 2016-08-31 14:10:28 by bonefish bonefish
@Bonefish: Ok, here you go
Code:$ hg clone http://home.sm41.de/.cranker-dev
added on the 2016-08-31 15:42:36 by bifat bifat
@bitfat: amazing! just seen it, otherwise it would be sooner. let me know if you have a mac and need a makefile_osx.

@others, here you go:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21386780/cranker/cranker_osx_v0.2.zip
(32 + 64 bit exe, OS X 10.5 or later)
i've quickly tried it and it works, but feel free to let me know if there is any problems with OSX version.
rulez added on the 2016-08-31 22:10:31 by bonefish bonefish
It would be wise to rename the prod in this page to simply "Cranker" (without version number) and update the download link to some URL that always contains the last version.
added on the 2016-08-31 22:58:45 by ham ham
what ham said!
added on the 2016-08-31 23:02:44 by bonefish bonefish
I have renamed the prod, as for the the download links, that's up to Bifat. :)
added on the 2016-08-31 23:20:24 by StingRay StingRay
Ok, the download link now points to the current version 0.3.
Changes: Raw data decruncher included, one of the fastest decrunchers for 68000. Minor bugfix in decrunch header. Added Amiga-style commandline parsing, new options CDATA, DDATA, MAXOVH, MERGE. Removed former hardcoded limit of 64 bytes maximum overhead. Full sourcecode release. I guess a Mac OS X version is underway, too, I didn't hear back from Bonefish yet.
added on the 2016-09-07 12:46:43 by bifat bifat
i believe that bifat updated the download, so now it also have osx binary and makefile.
added on the 2016-09-07 22:46:45 by bonefish bonefish
Now on Aminet too:
http://aminet.net/package/util/pack/cranker.lha
There seems to be a cruncher week at aminet: DefPack, MaxPak, OmegaPacker, Cranker... hot, hot, hot!
added on the 2016-09-08 07:17:18 by bifat bifat
Update to 0.40 available here and on Aminet: Disk motor is now turned off before the executable is started, in an OS-legal way, no poking to hardware registers.
added on the 2016-11-08 07:56:10 by bifat bifat
Excellent.
rulez added on the 2016-11-08 15:27:01 by krabob krabob
Cranker 0.42 now available under the download link and expected to show up on Aminet soon.

The Amiga version now works on Kickstart 1.x and on 68000 CPUs, a FPU is no longer required. It's even fast enough to realistically crunch a demo on an Amiga 500. :-) This was a reasonable request by Sachy. Crunching fastmem hunks is now supported. Added an example decrunch header (including source) showing the load/decrunch progress.
added on the 2017-03-29 21:37:39 by bifat bifat
Haven´t made use of it yet, so can´t put any real feedback, sorry! maybe later then! ;)
But reading "Titanics replacement" makes me insta-happy, have a thumb up already for the effort, i will use it for sure in the future! :)
rulez added on the 2017-03-29 22:16:34 by ɧ4ɾɗվ. ɧ4ɾɗվ.
Yet another update - version 0.51 fixes some bugs with partly uninitialized hunks (produced by some compilers), hunk merging, and it strips debug/symbol hunks.
added on the 2017-05-01 19:48:36 by bifat bifat
New version 0.64 under the download link: New read-ahead logic for faster loading, faster decruncher, can show textfiles (e.g. for ANSI logos), added decrankers 'picture' for showing a picture while loading, 'black' for a black screen while loading, userdata append option, some bug fixes, major source code and build cleanup and improved documentation
added on the 2017-07-20 22:13:35 by bifat bifat
Looks like it's working now for me. Sometime before when I tried using it the executable crashed on start. Seems to have been fixed. Great stuff. Will definitely try to use it for when Shrinkler is too slow.
rulez added on the 2017-08-03 13:21:12 by dodke dodke
First up, I thougt: "Okay, another cruncher.. what for?" As I came in the situation I finally needed some cruncher to handle a large file, I tried Cranker and I must say I'm really impressed:

-very fast decrunching with fine size
-nice options for during decrunching
-continuously updates
-great replacement of the legendary Titanics Cruncher

A big thanks to Bifat! :)
rulez added on the 2017-10-25 14:12:06 by kwe kwe
Super late thumb, great that you're adding features! Downloaded it again to see. About time for a replacement for Titanics-Cruncher for sure :)
rulez added on the 2018-02-22 23:48:51 by Photon Photon
Thanks for making this - works great.
rulez added on the 2019-10-25 02:13:12 by Antiriad_UK Antiriad_UK
Great tool which really loads and decrunches at the same time! And the -tf option is just too cool.
rulez added on the 2019-12-27 19:19:18 by ok3anos ok3anos
Takes 5 min to compile an executable for Windows, just requires a MinGW installation.
Used it to compress Five, worked well even if I could not get a huge compression ratio as most of the file data are samples for the 250kb music.
Thanks Bifat!
rulez added on the 2019-12-27 20:34:11 by Soundy Soundy
Awesome stuff. Dare I to ask for a 64bit version so I can compile and use this under latest OSX :) ?
rulez added on the 2020-04-22 17:34:21 by spkr spkr
difficult bug report to where?
added on the 2020-06-24 11:49:07 by wertstahl wertstahl
ok nevermind, i RTFM. sry.
rulez added on the 2020-06-24 19:28:23 by wertstahl wertstahl
Cranker is now available in version 0.66 on Aminet, under the download link, and here:
http://neoscientists.org/~bifat/binarydistillery/cranker/. Precompiled binaries for Linux, MacOSX and Windows have been updated too. See src/INSTALL for instructions on how to compile it yourself for your funny computer.

Changes: Some flickers and glitches removed from the decrankers black, picture, and cinema. The picture option was pointless when starting an executable with a fast CPU from harddisk. Added SHOWTIME argument, the minimum number of seconds to display the picture. Default: 5.

This is a reminder to consider using Cranker for crunching your big Amiga OCS onefilers especially in the '-d cinema' or '-d picture' modes for a maxmium pleasant UX. Stay tuned for our next release where we will showcase again why using Cranker is a good idea for bigger filedemos.
added on the 2021-02-08 13:00:34 by bifat bifat
Woohoooo!
rulez added on the 2021-02-08 13:04:54 by d0DgE d0DgE
Nice
rulez added on the 2021-03-12 18:27:51 by Frequent Frequent
Tools for the masses
rulez added on the 2021-03-12 19:03:43 by v3nom v3nom
Excellent!
rulez added on the 2021-03-12 19:48:52 by rloaderro rloaderro
...tested it, and it will certainly be used in future shenanigans
added on the 2021-03-21 17:28:33 by d0DgE d0DgE
Hi! Awesome tool. Is there btw some known issue when compiled to 64bit binary? I see the makefile has -m32 for GCC, but the thing seems to work fine (atleast in this one test :)) without it on 64bit Linux.
rulez added on the 2022-03-11 08:19:39 by hot multimedia hot multimedia
I don't remember if there were issues with 64bit. I think we had at some point a 64bit version for MacOSX. So the answer is "no known issues, maybe due to forgetfulness". The main reason is that the main target Amiga is 32bit, and 32bit executables can usually be executed on both 32 and 64bit architectures, which makes is easier to maintain precompiled binaries for Lindows.
added on the 2022-03-11 09:12:52 by bifat bifat
Been using it for a while now!
rulez added on the 2024-02-19 13:10:36 by grip grip
(And I'm using the Amiga version natively. Works great!)
added on the 2024-02-19 13:14:22 by grip grip
used it!
rulez added on the 2024-02-19 17:19:17 by Hyde Hyde
Using it in a production that you will see very soon as in-demo (de)cruncher. Thanks Bifat!
rulez added on the 2024-02-20 12:22:27 by Depeche Depeche

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