what's the difference between "zip" and "compress" and "pack" ？

Question

I saw article tile ——"Compress and uncompress files (zip files)" from Windows 7 document here.

What's the difference between "zip" and "compress" and “pack”? Is it the same thing? I am so confused and need your help.

Solution

Compression is a general technique, and there are any number of compression programs out there. pkzip, WinRAR, 7-zip, etc are all examples for the Windows platform.

PK-Zip is one particular program that compresses files in the 'zip' format. Support for zip files is built into Windows, so many people conflate compression with zip files.

Comments

[Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_(file_format)

[Frank Thomas]

in common parlance, they are the same. "Zip" invokes memories of a couple specific programs (gzip, pkzip and winzip in particular), but is colloquially equivalent to "compress". How equivalant the two terms are, depends on how specifically you are speaking of them. in a discussion of compression algorithms using the term generically may be out of place, but when talking to your grandma, its perfectly acceptable to gloss over the implementational details of a given algorithm.

[Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007]

dictionary.reference.com/browse/compress

[sawdust]

"Pack" is not related to compression. "Packed structures" and "packed bytes" are usages that I'm familiar with, and it means that filler or padding has been removed so that each byte contains valid data.

[Frank Thomas]

@sawdust, I believe that 'PACK' in this case, is in the context of tar. the combination of a number of files within a container (usually called an archive) from which the files may then be extracted. This is disctinct from compression itself, as is evidenced by the relationship between tar and gzip in your standard file.tar.gz

[Frank Thomas]

I don't know if I'd call it "confusion" per se. For instance, is your boss objectively wrong for asking you to "Xerox" a meeting handout, even though he knows you have an HP copier? Is it wrong to go to the store for "Kleanex", and buy them in a box labeled "Puffs"? I would argue that this is not confusion, but a somewhat more universal instinct for name recognition.

[LawrenceLi]

@FrankThomas Aha my English is poor

[LawrenceLi]

I got it and what about another word "pack"? I forgot add "pack" to my question,sorry

[Frank Thomas]

@LawrenceLi, I can see how my examples might be difficult for non-english speakers. In the US at least, when a company produces a product that everyone comes to recognize, we often start refering to that product by the companies name, even if other companies produce a similar competing product. Xerox was the first company to commercialize the office copier, so we've been calling "copying" "Xeroxing" for decades now. Zip does mean somthing very specific, but over the years, people have started to use it in a less precise manner.

[Hastur]

I've just rephrased before your comment. :) BTW In Russian language, to follow one of your examples, it is common to say to do a "Xerox" and it is almost not used the term photocopy (фотокопия). I agree it is a synecdoche, IMHO more then an antonomasia, that with the use becomes a common word, even if technically the difference remain... and in the ones that start to learn this can generate confusion.

[Hastur]

@LawrenceLi Updated answer for pack compress and zip that maybe you find cited in another article...

[Hastur]

@FrankThomas I find another key to read this question... that I missed with the first reading (mobile is not a desktop...)