Quote Originally Posted by Chebmaster View Post
Why not pk3 aka zip ? You can open and operate them using any file manager. And the code is already there in standard Free Pascal package.
I made me a modified version that can use streams, not just open files directly. Want me to share? (LGPL)
Thank-you. Of course, share it. I was thinking about this a lot but I'm still open to new ideas. I'm using zlib/libpng license though and AFAIK it has some issues with LGPL.

Package systems I know forces a sequential access for files. I mean, you have to go file by file until you find the one you want (For example, TTarArchive.FindNext). If the package is compressed then it is mandatory. I don't want to load all data at once but allow to load the data when it is needed, so direct access is desirable.

Also, I need to bind the package with the Allegro file system so I can use Allegro to load data. Of course I can load data in a memory stream then interface the memory stream with the Allegro file system then use Allegro to "actually load" data, but why do it that way if I can bind directly the package with Allegro?

Finally, I like simple things and I find modern programming unnecessarily complex. IFF is simple, flexible and easy to parse. I think an IFF-based package system would be great.