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?
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You know these vacuum bags in which you store your winter coats during the summer? You put in the coats, seal the bag and suck out all the air with a vacuum. You cannot use the coat in this state, as you traded volume for usablity. Outside the bag, the air serves a purpose. It keeps you warm and makes the coat soft.
A zip file does the same thing as a vacuum bag. It takes out zeroes on a row, ones on a row, abbreviates patterns and so on. By doing so, it makes the file smaller but unreadable for the computer. Therefore the process has to be reversed to make it readable again. This takes time and energy hence why not all files are zipped by default. Kinda similar to how you don’t put your coat in the vacuum bag after every use.
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