PKZIP Version 2.0

PKZIP, Version 2.04, uses a new compression type called "deflating".  The 
results:  PKZIP 2.0 compressed files were typically 5 to 15 percent smaller
then PKZIP 1.1 compressed files, and the program performed up to 30 percent
faster.

Before this upgrade. PKZIP was slighly less efficient in compression than its
closest competitors -ARJ and LHA.  The price paid for the new, more 
efficient method is incompatibility.  PKZIP 2.04 will decompress .ZIP files
made with earlier versions of PKZIP, but if you try to use the old PKUNZIP
on a new .ZIP file, you'll get a message: "I don't know how to handle: 
Filename.  So for months to come, people will be asking "By the way, do you
have Version 2.04 of PKZIP?" before they send you a file.  So you'll need
to keep the old version around to make .ZIP files compatible with Version 1.1.

PKZIP and PKUNZIP will use expanded and extended memory if available, make
use of 286 and 386 specific code if they discover a compatible CPU, and run
32 bit code if they find a DPMI server as found in DOS Sessions fun from 
Windows.  

ZIP fie decompression times were always blazing, ofter twice as fast as the
competition, and VErsion 2.04 still holds that advantage.  The program
has also added so many new options that its single screen feature summary
has grown to four screens.

There's a lot to know about Version 2.04.  I'll continue my indepth research
and stay tuned next month for more on this great File Compression Utility

EDITOR CLYDE ARNOLD
BITS N' BYTES BBS