Can I Zip with cmd

[Gary S. Terhune]

That one's been around for so long that it's gone through dialectical
changes depending on region. For my locale, my version is much better
understood. Besides, I like the double entendre of the word "dumb".

 

[Vanguard]

in message

...

Not a problem to me. I've never been one to hide or be ashamed of my
age.

I still remember writing in machine code and having to use either
punch cards or tape with teletypes. I remember the Altair kits for
the joy of flipping paddles switches to code in the bits and then
latching them into memory to manually code your tiny program.
Remember when Heathkit showed up? Woohoo.

 

[Vanguard]

That didn't come with DOS or Windows either. It was third party
(that
is meant as an equally ridiculous retort - and yes, it's true).

I was mostly addressing your comment that PKZIP was free. When it was
first PKarc, it was free. When it changed to PKZip (because SEA sued
Katz over stealing their code from ARC so Katz had to rewrite his
program and decided to make money on his popularity), it became
shareware - which is not free but often allows users to steal the
product beyond the trial period.

Many people tend to use winzip despite the nag screen, and some
still
don't realise it's shareware!

When visiting http://www.winzip.com/, how is it possible to miss all
pricings, "Trial", and "WinZip is NOT Free Software"? If you go to
download sites, like download.com, it is listed as "free to try,
$29.95 to buy" or as trialware or shareware.

The only people that miss that it is commercialware are the people
that have no intention on buying the product (i.e., they know they are
stealing). Unlike many commercial products with trial periods, WinZip
doesn't (or it didn't when I last used it) cripple or disable itself
when the trial period ends, and that promotes users to steal.

In the end I decided all I need is the right click - shell
extension.
No need for the whole GUI. I guess it's good for that.

But for ISOs i'd use other payware like MagicISO or UltraISO.

I never let any program that wants to usurp filetype associations do
so carte blanche. If prompted, I say no. Then I go into the
program's options and choose which filetypes that *I* want associated
to the newly installed program. I don't even have 7-zip associated
with .zip file. For me, 7-zip is not associated to any filetype.
Like you, I just use the context menu on an object (drive, folder, or
file) to perform a file archiving operation using 7-zip.

I don't need all the alternatives to ZIP. ZIP and ISO are fine.

If your entire computing experience in files received from others or
the OS platforms that you use is limited solely to Windows then you
probably don't need more than .zip support. .rar shows up
occasionally even in an all-Windows environment. However, if you deal
with users of other OS platforms, like UNIX, or you use them yourself,
then you'll want support for .tar and .gz. Having support for more
archive/compression formats does nothing to make the program more
difficult. Nothing changes in the UI or options within the program.
I don't ever recall PKZip, WinZip, or 7-Zip changing their UI or the
available operations because of using a different archive format.
However, most of the Windows archive programs will handle the UNIX
formats but they still will only produce .zip files (i.e., they are
oriented to producing .zip files on Windows).

 

[Plato]

In Explorer I can create a "Compressed (zipped) Folder".
Is there a way zip a bunch of files in cmd.exe?

..zip programs:

The original:
http://www.bootdisk.com/dostools.htm
More - pkunzip

Another, way more modern:
http://www.ultimatezip.com/download.htm

 

[Plato]

for history's sake, i'll mention that in the days of DOS, people used
PKZIP and PKUNZIP .

Interestingly, even tho I run a website that is just starting to support
Vista, I still use pkzip ver 2.04g [the last version as far as I know]
to zip all the files I have for download.

I suppose it's a case of "if it aint broke, dont fix it" as I've never
in 8 years ever had sombody complain to me that the .zip file they
downloaded from me didn't work.

 

[jameshanley39]

for history's sake, i'll mention that in the days of DOS, people used
PKZIP and PKUNZIP .

Interestingly, even tho I run a website that is just starting to support
Vista, I still use pkzip ver 2.04g [the last version as far as I know]
to zip all the files I have for download.

I suppose it's a case of "if it aint broke, dont fix it" as I've never
in 8 years ever had sombody complain to me that the .zip file they
downloaded from me didn't work.

--http://www.bootdisk.com/

Are you the guy that runs www.bootdisk.com then?

who wouldn't put a win xp 3 file boot disk on there because the
default boot.ini might not suit everybody.

The pkzip guy or people did think there is some issue, hence along
with useful utilities like pkzip,pkunzip, ziptoexe, there was
something like pkzipfix .

I sometimes had zip files that wouldn't work, and ran pkzipfix or
whatever it was called, on them, and it fixed them.

In a world of long filenames, it's easier to get around the directory
tree at a GUI - with clicks. The command prompt isn't so nifty getting
around the tree or pointing to places in the tree. Even with filename/
directory completion. Doskey macros can help to change to a long
directory like the profile, quicker, but they have to be set up.
Maybe it's worth it. Still, it's a shame, since the run dialog box is
nifty at bringing up the command prompt!

 

[Ken Blake]

Ken,

In all seriousness, I am impressed.

I wasn't tried to impress you, just telling you again how old I am. ;-)

Boy, have *you* seen some changes!

Yeah, a couple. ;-)