Winzip releases PPMd compression specification for winzip 10.0
Posted by Sachin Garg on 2nd November 2005 | Permanent Link
You probably already know about the recent changes that came with winzip 10.0 beta.
Among other things, they announced support for bzip2 and ppmd algorithms in zip files. Although bzip2 format is already very popular and well specified, there were confusions regarding the format used for Dmitry Shkarin’s PPMd algorithm.
They have finally released the details, with all the due credits given to Dmitry Shkarin.
They have also introduced a developer-update mailing-list which probably means that more developments are underway. Seems like they have decided to assume ownership of ZIP format and, after years of just UI updates, speed up on path of “developing” the format further.
This sure is good news for users (as long as they take care that backward-incompatibility doesnt becomes too much pain to handle, which is gonna be a lot harder than it sounds).