If a .zip file contains all of the information of the original, just in less space, why does it have to be unzipped to access any of it?

Question

If a .zip file contains all of the information of the original, just in less space, why does it have to be unzipped to access any of it?

In: 1276

Answer 1

OK, so imagine a file is basically a string of 20 zeroes.

that can be shortened from 00000000000000000000 to 20 x 0 when zipped.

some programs are built to understand that, and the file doesn’t need to be unzipped.

But most will not understand this new format