Abbrevia

Version 4.0
March 14, 2011
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Table of contents

Introduction

Abbrevia is a compression toolkit for Embarcadero Delphi, C++ Builder, and Kylix. It supports PKZip, CAB, tar, gzip, bzip2 and zlib compression formats, and the creation of self-extracting executables. It also includes visual components that simplify displaying zip files.

Abbrevia 4.0 adds many new features and bug fixes including:

This is a source-only release. It includes design-time and run-time packages for Delphi 6 through Delphi XE, C++Builder 2009, 2010, and XE, and Kylix 3. Kylix 3 does not support Lzma, PPMd, or WavPack decompression.

Packages

Abbrevia includes the following packages:

$LIBSUFFIX is used, so each .bpl/.bpi will have a version number after it corresponding to the compiler version (e.g. 150 for Delphi XE).

The Kylix 3 AbbreviaCLX package includes all of the non-visual runtime units, and the Abbrevia package is not included separately.

Installation

To install TurboPower Abbrevia into your IDE:

  1. Unzip the release files into a directory (e.g., d:\abbrevia).
  2. Start Delphi or C++Builder.
  3. Add the source subdirectory (e.g. d:\abbrevia\source) to the Delphi Library path.
  4. If using C++Builder, add the source subdirectory to C++Builder's Include and Library paths.
  5. Open the project group in the packages directory that corresponds to the IDE being used (e.g. "Delphi XE.groupproj").
  6. Start at the top of the project group and compile each package in turn. If using C++Builder, install it each one after compiling.
  7. Select the "AbbreviaVCLDesign" package and install it. The IDE should notify you that the components have been installed. If you are using Delphi 7 you can install "AbbreviaCLXDesign" as well to get CLX designtime support.
  8. Make sure the PATH environmental variable contains the directory in which the compiled packages (i.e. BPL or DPL files) were placed.

Support and feedback

Support forums are available on the SourceForge project site.

Bug reports can be entered in the bug tracker. If possible please include a small test case that reproduces the issue. Sample files can be attached to the bug report, and confidential data can be emailed to the project administrator.

If you have something you would like to see in the product feel free to add a feature request.

Development sources

The current source code is available in the Subversion repository. The code here may not be as stable or tested as the official releases, but may include bug fixes or new features not yet included in the downloadable releases.

The repository also includes DUnit tests and the source code to the third-party libraries.

Getting involved

If you want to help make Abbrevia better, there are several ways to get involved. We welcome help with features and bug fixes. Just look in the issue tracker to see what's needed. We're also looking for help for:

License

Abbrevia is licensed under the Mozilla Public License, version 1.1. It can be used in commercial and closed-source applications provided any changes to Abbrevia units are made available electronically.

The WavPack library used for zipx decompression has its own license, included as "WavPack License.txt". Redistribution requires a copyright notice in your documentation or elsewhere in your distribution. WavPack support can be removed by disabling the UnzipZipxSupport or UnzipWavPackSupport conditional define in AbDefine.inc.

Changes from 3.05

These are the most significant features, fixes and changes made since v3.05. There are many other bug fixes and low-level improvements, the details of which are available in the Subversion log.

Features

Bug fixes

Cleanup