ZIP Hardware and Software Platforms

Applications supporting the ZIP format are available for a large number of hardware and software platforms. To ensure compatibility of file names and attributes an internal header field is implemented. The current specification (6.2.0) allows to identify 20 operating or file systems respectively.

Compatibility problems cannot be avoided at any time. In practice difficulties often occur if data has to be transferred between Windows and Apple systems for example. On the one hand Apple allows a more flexible use of special characters in file and directory names. On the other hand Apple systems require the so called resource fork necessary to identify the file type among others.

If data shall be provided for different operation systems, it is recommended to use applications that explicitly support them. Those applications will offer corresponding features required (e.g. HQX encoding).

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