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
Because it is made as compact as possible. A lot of repeating bits can easily be compressed because the zip file is something like. A book
But instead of wasting a whole page for 48 bits, it will say “Hey, this piece of information is actually a lot of 1’s, so just repeat 4000 zero’s, and then the next 48 bits are these for this page. The data after those 48 bits should be interpreted as a new page.
Well, why can’t programs access this? Long awnser is they can, but they have to decompress it in order to do anything meaningful with it. This takes some cpu power of the computer to decompress it. Also there are many ways to compress a file, if you want to support every type of compression you’re making your program bloated which can lead to extra bugs.
Relying on just plain uncompressed data is faster and simpler for both your pc and the programmers behind the software.
Latest Answers