[thelist] Unzipping files on a Mac - known issues?

[James Parsons]

>Hi Listees
>
>Are there any known issues uncompressing Zip files on a Mac,
>that are compressed using WinZip on a PC? If yes, is there
>a better (more user-friendly) way to compress files for Mac
>users on a PC?
>
>TIA
>
>Mike


Mac files can unzip Zip archives as easily as StuffIt using the same free
tool: Alladdin's StuffIt Expander, http://www.stuffit.com/mac/index.html.
The actual file compression, though, needs to be done with a different
tool. Any of the standard Win_Zip tools can be used to make .zip archives,
but Alladdin also has a version of StuffIt for Windows,
http://www.stuffit.com/win/index.html which can compress in either format
just the same as the Mac version of StuffIt. The thing about the stuffit or
.sit archive is that it will result in a smaller compressed archive than
you get with .zip
(http://www.stuffit.com/compression/sitvszipdifference.html). Hence a small
file to email or transfer to a floppy, cd-rw, or Zip disk. More info on
StuffIt vs. Zip at http://www.stuffit.com/compression/comparison.html.

I work on a Mac system and get a lot of zip archives sent to me by clients.
Never had a problem with .zip archives although in most cases I'd rather
these things get sent as StuffIt .sit archives just to speed things up if
nothing else. If there's ever been a problem, it seems like it's the other
way around. Whenever we need to send compressed files or archives to
clients on Windows systems, invariably we will have to send them as .zip
archives. I suggest to my Windows based clients that they get the free
Windows version of StuffIt Expander and it seems like a lot of them seem to
have problems with that. I've installed and used the Windows version of
StuffIt Expander on several Windows systems and never had a problem with
it, myself, so I'm not really sure there's an actual issue there other than
the "human factor." In the end, we usually just try to make it as simple
for clients as possible; we send them .zip files and they send us .zip
files. To our Mac based clients we send .sit files and they send up .sit
files.

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