Are both '.7z' and '.zip' portable archives necessary ?

guy038

Hello, All,

I was about to download the N++ 8.9.7 RC2, but when I saw the total number of versions available, I wondered :

Would it be possible to simplify this list by offering only .zip archives for the portable versions ? I assume that would make @donho’s job easier !

npp.8.9.7.Installer.arm64.exe

npp.8.9.7.Installer.exe

npp.8.9.7.Installer.x64.exe

npp.8.9.7.Installer.x64.msi

npp.8.9.7.portable.7z

npp.8.9.7.portable.arm64.7z

npp.8.9.7.portable.arm64.zip

npp.8.9.7.portable.minimalist.7z

npp.8.9.7.portable.minimalist.arm64.7z

npp.8.9.7.portable.minimalist.x64.7z

npp.8.9.7.portable.x64.7z

npp.8.9.7.portable.x64.zip

npp.8.9.7.portable.zip

Source code (zip)

Source code (tar.gz)

Presently, as reported in the section above, the portable minimalist versions are .7z archives and all the other portable versions are proposed with, both, the .7z and .zip archives

But, maybe, Don has a specific reason for offering these two options ? Let’s wait for his answer !

Best Regards,

guy038

PeterJones

@guy038 ,

I believe that 7z is a more-efficient compressed file, and a decade or two ago, a lot of people were moving toward it instead of zip. I think he started offering both to accommodate those who preferred the 7z. (It would also explain why the minimalist is only-7z, if it’s better-compressed.)

As far as making his job easier, I am sure the zipping was automated years ago as part of the build/release process, so it’s no extra effort on his part.

I assume he has access to download logs, at least through the website downloads if not through the GitHub direct downloads. My guess is if no one was downloading the 7z version, he probably would have decided to stop providing it, so there are probably some users who prefer that version.

That’s, obviously, just my guess, but I offer it for what it’s worth.

guy038

Hello, @peterjones and All,

I should have guessed that @donho doesn’t have to do any manual work to create the different versions of each N++ release !

I personally always use the 7z archive, as the 7z application is installed on my Windows 11 machine !

BR

guy038

Alan Kilborn

@guy038 said:

I personally always use the 7z archive, as the 7z application is installed

I use the 7z archive, but only use the WinZip application (as WinZip “knows” the 7z format).
Why do I do this? I don’t know…just the habit I got into.

mpheath

@PeterJones said:

@guy038 ,

I believe that 7z is a more-efficient compressed file, and a decade or two ago, a lot of people were moving toward it instead of zip. I think he started offering both to accommodate those who preferred the 7z. (It would also explain why the minimalist is only-7z, if it’s better-compressed.)

7z format is not a worthy replacement for the zip format. 7z is a more-efficient compressed file for size though what about the other advantages compared to other formats like zip?

If someone wants to extract an individual file or two, then the zip format is desirable. The zip format compresses each file individually and keeps a table of records of how to access them. This makes the format good for decompression for any or all files to extract. The zip format is comparable to the old cabinet format which also was designed for accessing individual files. The zip format advantage is faster speed and flexibility with individual file access.

7z is a solid format in which the files are compressed like a whole blob of files to gain greater compression. To extract an individual file or two means the whole blob of files may need to be decompressed. This might not be too noticeable by the user with a small compressed file though decompression is less efficient with the 7z format unless extracting all of the files is the aim and it will decompress slower so decompression has no good advantages. The 7z format advantage is smaller compression size.

If size is not a concern, zip can be considered as superior in many ways. When you know the difference between the formats, then your choice of which to download may change. The zip format access also can allow to download a piece of the compressed file to get only the files wanted so downloading the whole compressed file is not needed. See this post where Python’s zipfile.ZipFile can work with individual files of a zip file.

Here is a snippet of code I use that needs an offset and length:

    def _download_range(url, offset, length):
        '''Download a range of bytes from a url.'''

        with urllib.request.urlopen(urllib.request.Request(
                url, headers={'Range': 'bytes={}-'.format(offset)})) as r:

            content = r.read(length)

        return content

And would call it like:

compressed = _download_range(url, 305369, 1275535)

This can download from an online zip file only a part of the file. Open 7zip with a Notepad++*.7z and open the properties window for the file Notepad++.exe. You will not see an offset to where the file is located. Do the same with Notepad++*.zip, it will show an offset as it is recorded.

7z format advantage is smaller compressed size without all of the advantages that the zip format offers.

guy038

Hello, @mpheath, @peterjones and all,

@mpheath, thanks for your very informative post regarding the differences between 7z and zip archives. I learned a few things today ! ( I should say… tonight ! )

Luckily, I generally extract all files from the N++ 7z archives !

Best Regards,

guy038

ThosRTanner

@mpheath This is somewhat disingenuous. For certain circumstances, .zip is going to a better format than .7z, but it depends on your use case. The most obvious being where you’re compressing multiple files into one archive and wish to decompress only individual ones. This doesn’t seem terribly useful for an installation package though.

In general, 7zip compresses much better (even for a single file) but is slower to compress/decompress.

.7z is open source, .zip is proprietary but the format is released as an application note.

Somewhat tangentially, on windows, you can use the 7 zip library to read/write a huge range of different archives and compression types.

sevem47

@ThosRTanner said:

This doesn’t seem terribly useful for an installation package though.

This is exactly my use case: I download the zip archive end selectively extract only changed files. Some of the files in my installation I explicitly do NOT want to get overwritten.

In the end it is really just a matter of taste. And I really appreciate the possibility to choose my desired format. From this I support the current situation, that both format are presented for download.