3 ms·

ZIP is a horrible, horrible format - it's best left in the past.

• ineedasername 8y ago
  I honestly don't know much about the relative differences in formats like this, what is horrible about ZIP? Also, my impression is that more compressed files end up in RAR these days. I know that's not a new format either-- is it similarly horrible?
  • voltagex_ 8y ago
    To read a zip file, you need to read it backwards: https://github.com/corkami/pics/raw/master/binary/zip101/zip101.pdf https://github.com/corkami/pics/raw/master/binary/zip101/zip.... There's also another standard called ZIP64 to allow for larger files (maximum 4GB in the original spec). I was going to say that RAR is proprietary, but at least there's (non-FOSS) source code and good specs: https://www.rarlab.com/technote.htm https://www.rarlab.com/technote.htm
    • opencl 8y ago
      The central directory is a great feature of zip. Makes it easy to append to and to list the files or decompress individual files without decompressing the entire archive. The actual horrible thing about zip is that there is no standard whatsoever for the encoding of filenames. So mangled filenames are common and most utilities don't even let you manually select the encoding if you know what it is.
      • ineedasername 8y ago
        Yeah, I occasionally would encounter errors decoding zip files along the lines of "the file name was too long"