[Python-Dev] Re: Another approach for the import mechanism (original) (raw)

Bob Kline bkline@rksystems.com
Mon, 9 Dec 2002 09:33:56 -0500 (EST)

On Mon, 9 Dec 2002, Chermside, Michael wrote:

I think this proposal would make sense IF compression were an important goal here. But to me, it isn't. Zip does two things... it aggregates into a single file (maintaining directory structure) and it compresses. Of the two, I find the aggregation important and the compression a mere side effect.

Our three chief weapons are .... Oops, wrong show.

Zip (and tar + bzip2/gzip) provide at least three services:

  1. aggregation
  2. compression
  3. integrity validation (CRC, etc.)

I'm leaving off encryption, so someone else can continue with the SI gag.

Some do a better job than others at letting you get to the rest of the archive if one spot is corrupted.

Basically, disk space is cheap ...

True in many contexts, but not all. And the differences in compression ratios between zip and bzipped tar can be surprisingly significant.

-- Bob Kline mailto:bkline@rksystems.com http://www.rksystems.com