
                       Who is Info-Zip?


  They are a dedicated group of people who have developed a 
freeware implementation of ZIP and UNZIP.  Their code originated
on Unix, but now exists on a multitude of platforms!

  They formed shortly after the famous SEA vs. Phil Katz lawsuit
around 1990.  This was when Thom Henderson of System Enhancement
Associates (author of the then-popular ARC program) sued Phil Katz
for making a compatible set of programs (PKARC and PKXARC) that
were far better than the original.  The majority of programmers
supported Phil because he didn't steal or borrow any of SEA's code.
His only sin was using the same file format developed by SEA, and 
using the 3 letters: ARC.

  Following the lawsuit, which Phil lost, sadly, he renamed his 
programs (PKARC became PKPAK, PKXARC became PKUNPAK), and developed
a new and improved compression program called PKZIP. The rest is
history.  Phil released the file format into the public domain so 
others could write compatible programs (he didn't want anyone else
burned over such a ridiculous issue).

  The Info-Zip group of programmers got started when they couldn't 
find a Unix program to handle the ZIP format.  Their efforts were
slow to get going, but they became known for their high quality
freeware C source code.  Today, their code is more compatible with
Windows 95 and NT than any of the programmer libraries released by
Phil Katz to date. 

  This is where I come in - Phil's own commercially offered Delphi
File Compression library was very limited (at least in the Dec 96 
timeframe when I started by port).  It did not come with source code,
did not support deflation (the best compression method), and worst
of all, it didn't even support the standard PKZIP file format!

  Since I knew of Info-Zip, I decided to see if I could port their
C source code to work as a Win32 DLL. This allows Delphi programmers
to benefit from the mega-manhours spent on the Info-Zip project.  My
efforts are NOT an official part of the Info-Zip project, since I
have not "carried over" all of the platform dependant code.


  Info-Zip home page:
  http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/


Eric W. Engler
March 1997
