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| ENCODE/DECODE II by Kenneth Foo. 22nd June 1995.                        |
| (c) Copyright Kenneth Foo, 1995. All Rights Reserved.                   |
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WHAT ARE THESE UTILITIES FOR?
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	Encode and decode are utilities which are able to encode 8-bit
UNSIGNED sample waveform into a special format whereby general compressors
such as PKZIP, LHA and ARJ can compress better. Usually, WAVE, VOC and RAW
file formats use unsigned samples. You are still able to encode signed
samples, but they generally won't compress as well.

	This version replaces Encode/Decode version 1. In this new version,
a slightly newer encoding method is used which is almost all the time,
slightly better than the old method. (The old method was also used in
Platinum Play III's AMM format).

	NOTE: It does not do any lossy compression. It merely encodes them
	      without any loss in data.

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SYNTAX/USAGE
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To encode,
	ENC     (source file name)  (target file name)

	Target file is an encoded file and cannot be used by any other
	utilities.

To decode,
	DEC     (source file name)  (target file name)

	Source file is an encoded file. From there, DEC generates the
	original file.

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RECOMMENDED USE OF ENCODE/DECODE
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	þ Transportation across BBSes/Internet, where bandwidth is crucial.
	  If this is done, I recommend that you also include DEC.EXE and
	  give some documentation on decoding it. It is also recommended
	  that you put a $ character in the 3rd letter in the file
	  extension. For example, the encoded version of 2ND_PM.S3M is
	  2ND_PM.S3$.
	þ Backup storage. You might need a small batch file or something
	  to do decode automatically.

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WHEN IS ENCODE/DECODE *NOT* USEFUL?
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	þ If you use Ultra Compressor with the tight multimedia switch.
	  It automatically does some encoding by itself. I'm not sure of
	  it's encoding method though.
	þ For XM/PSM/AMM, do not use encode/decode as they already have
	  some form of encoding in them.
	þ Some MODs/S3Ms.

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OTHER UTILITIES FOR BETTER COMPRESSION
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CRUSH.
	I'm not sure who wrote this, but this program merges many small
	files into a bigger file, and compressors perform better this way.

PLATINUM PLAY III.
	Use this ONLY if you're a Platinum Play III user :-).
	Platinum Play III is able to convert MODs and S3Ms into a special
	AMM format, which is usually smaller and more compressible that
	other formats. However, it cannot be converted back to the original
	MOD or S3M format, though it is fully possible with some programming
	work.