ZIP Files - What They are and How to Use Them

ZIPed files are a group of normal files that are put together in one file
and compressed in size at the same time.  A single ZIP file will usually
contain an entire package, so you only need to download one file to get all
you need to run the package.  Using ZIP will save considerable disk space
and download time.

  For example, a package might consist of:

 documentation  PROGRAM.DOC   12,000 bytes
 main program   PROGRAM.COM   35,000 bytes
 sample data    PROGRAM.DAT    2,000 bytes
                              ------
                              49,000 bytes.

All these files could be compressed into PROGRAM.ZIP, which is only about
20,000 bytes.

After you download a ZIP file, you must "un-ZIP" the files, which will
separate the compononents and un-compress them.  To do this you must have a
ZIP utility.  PKWare's PKZIP package (found on RBBS-PC systems as PKZ*.EXE)
can be used for this purpose.  If you have PKZIP, and have downloaded
PROGRAM.ZIP, the command:

   PKUNZIP PROGRAM

Will create the component files PROGRAM.DOC, PROGRAM.COM and PROGRAM.DAT
on your disk.

For more information on ZIP files, refer to the documentation in a ZIP
utility (PKZIP, for example).

