The story of is actually the story of the .ZIP file format itself and its tragic creator, Phil Katz . While the specific filename "Mypc.zip" is a common generic name used for personal backups, its existence is made possible by a dramatic corporate battle and a lonely personal struggle. 1. The Legal Battle (ARC vs. PKARC)
: Finds repeated strings of data and replaces them with shorter "pointers" to earlier occurrences. Mypc.zip
: Phil Katz , a talented programmer, felt ARC was too slow. He wrote his own version, PKARC , which was significantly faster because it was written in assembly language. The story of is actually the story of the
In the mid-1980s, the standard for file compression was the format, created by a company called System Enhancement Associates (SEA). The Legal Battle (ARC vs
: Instead of giving up, Katz settled the suit and decided to create a brand-new format that was completely independent of ARC. He named it ZIP (suggested by his friend Robert Mahoney to imply speed) and released PKZIP 1.0 in 1989. 2. The Rise of the ZIP Standard
: Following the death of his father, Katz withdrew from society and his own company. He became a chronic alcoholic and lived in extreme isolation.