cmz 1.0 beta 2

cmz 1.0 beta 2 — progress display and faster handling of already-packed data.

Free to use until 31 December 2026. Unpacking stays free without a time limit.

What's new:

• You can see what cmz is doing. The status column and the bar show each step: preparing, analysing,
  compressing with a percentage, decompressing with a percentage, rebuilding. While cmz is still analysing a file
  (it cannot know yet how long that takes) the bar shows a moving light instead of standing still.
• Already-packed data is skipped in a moment. cmz now recognises data that nothing can shrink further (RAR
  archives, the payload of most installers, encrypted data) and stores it as it is; only the rest goes through the
  compressor. A 2.2 MB RAR archive: 58 s → 0.2 s. A 40 MB EXE installer: 161 s → 10 s, and it unpacks in 1 s.
• Faster on some large astronomy cubes. When one of two methods has clearly won, cmz stops the other one
  early (an 85 MB radio data cube: 239 s → 141 s, same size).
• Clearer error messages: a damaged, incomplete or too-new .cmz file is reported in plain English.

Checked on 367 test files (2.8 GB): every file comes back byte for byte, and no file got bigger.

Compatibility: beta 2 opens every file made with beta 1. A file that beta 2 made with skipped (stored) parts needs
beta 2 or later; beta 1 refuses it with an error instead of guessing. If you share .cmz files, ask the others to
update too.

Updating: download cmz-1.0-beta2.exe and start it. If beta 1 is installed, cmz offers to update itself.

SHA-256 of cmz-1.0-beta2.exe:
3ddda01a67d352aad6471677c952c66e319b284a3c0b827cb48375b784d7b317

Requirements: 64-bit Windows 10 or 11. Beta terms: see the README.

Feedback, especially files where cmz does worse than you expected: fmolnar.no1@gmail.com