Description
Balloon 2 is a New Desk Accessory (NDA) which will let you easily work with ShrinkIt (NuFX) archives, the most common format on the Apple II. You can use Balloon to extract files from an archive, add files to an archive, or create an entirely new archives. Many other programs exist which let you perform similar actions (the freeware program, GS-ShrinkIt, is perhaps the most widely known). However, those other programs are separate applications.
Since Balloon is a New Desk Accessory, it will let you work with archives from within any desktop-based application that properly supports new desk accessories. Being able to work with archives without quitting your current application and running another program can save you lots of time and headaches.
Balloon will recognize many forms of ShrinkIt archives (normal archives, self-extracting archives, and archives enclosed in special “wrappers” such as Binary II). Balloon will not recognize archives that are not ShrinkIt archives (e.g. StuffIt, ZOO, or ARC archives are not recognized by Balloon). However, since the ShrinkIt archive format is the most commonly used on the Apple II, Balloon should be able to handle about 95% of the archives that you come across while using your IIGS.
The Balloon package also includes the Balloon XCMD for Spectrum v2.0. With this XCMD installed, Balloon can work with version 2.0 of the Spectrum telecommunications program to automate the process of extracting files from the ShrinkIt archives that you download. You can also use the Balloon XCMD for Spectrum to create Spectrum scripts that can automate other Balloon operations, such as creating archives and adding files to them.
Balloon works with Apple IlGS System Software version 6.0.1 or later. We recommend that you have at least 2MB of RAM (the more RAM you have, the better).
Disk Image and PDF Manual included.
