[Bf-committers] Suggestion: Drop zip archives (Windows releases)

[Alexandr Kuznetsov]

Hi,

.zip is natively supported on Windows. Not only that, it is the most 
supported format. So, I don't think there is good reason to drop it 
except for size. Also, 7z is only 30% percent smaller, which makes a 
difference only ~10 seconds to download on good connection. Self 
unpacking archives are not trustworthy and worse than installers.
If you want, I can pack .zip archives!

Best,
Alex




On 3/9/2013 11:58 AM, Thomas Dinges wrote:
> It's stupid to have 3 binaries for Windows (*2) and building etc is not
> really a batch process for me. ;)
>
> We have the installer (.exe) for convenience and that is probably the
> format that is used by most people. This will stay.
> For the archives though I'd like a change.
>
> 1) Only provide 7z
> 2) Provide an auto extract .exe (7z compression inside a .exe)
> 3) Only provide zip
>
> But imho 3) is the most stupid thing, and the only reason 3) has one pro
> argument is that stupid windows does not know any other format than zip.
>
> Thomas
>
>
> Am 09.03.2013 17:16, schrieb Harley Acheson:
>> Thomas,
>>
>> You talked about the pros and cons of the *formats* but not of the
>> pros and cons of your proposal.  What maintenance is really involved
>> in taking a folder of files and compressing it into two archives versus
>> one?
>>
>> The "pros" include more choice and much more convenience for the
>> user.  The "cons" include 5 seconds more time involved in a batch process
>> creating two archives, and 50 megabytes of storage on the server per
>> release.
>>
>> I'd say if you really have to drop one of the two archive types for
>> Windows then drop 7z and keep the zip - the one that is *integrated into
>> the operating system*.
>>
>> It is true that you only use one archive format for Mac, but that format is
>> zip. All arguments about 7z being better than zip would apply there too but
>> I doubt anyone would consider changing all archives for all OSs to 7z.
>>
>> Harley
>>
>>
>>
>> Anyway, I don't think we should keep 3x different types of binaries (*2
>>> for the architecture) for Windows, as for Mac and Linux we also only
>>> provide one for each bitness.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>> Thomas
>>>
>>>
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