ZIP is a product of the microcomputer era, which was filled with hobbyists, many new programmers learning the craft without the benefit of experience with matur

ZIP is a product of the microcomputer era, which was filled with hobbyists, many new programmers learning the craft without the benefit of experience with mature systems and the preceding decades of CS work, and even experienced programmers who needed to take shortcuts to do a lot with a little. It was an amazing time where many unpolished programs were developed to try out all sorts of ideas, and there's a lot I find fascinating about the era. (For example, flipping through old computer magazines, it's always interesting how few advertiser addresses were in Silicon Valley.) But as a professional developer in 2021, looking back on that time and genre of computing is also a bit horrifying. ;)