[Python-Dev] Zip format (was: Questions about distutils strategy )

[Andy Robinson]

On Fri, 10 Dec 1999 11:19:47 -0500, you wrote:

>> There were issues with zlib 1.0.4 and later ones. Also, many
>> Linux distributions don't have the zlib header files installed.
>
>Hm.  I don't recall having any problems reported to me.  I'd rather
>not include the entire zlib distri in the Python distri -- zlib
>is rather big.  Adding only the Unix source would be cheating.
>
Minor data point on the importance of zlib.  I spent a long time
figuring out what Adobe PDF's "flate filter" was before I discovered
it was the inverse of "deflate" (yes, there were loud sounds of
head-slapping when I clicked) and discovered that zlib.compress() was
EXACTLY what you need to create compressed streams in PDF documents.
Being a Windows person, I naively assumed zlib was in the standard
distribution everywhere, and subsequently discovered Mac and Unix
users were not so happy.  So if you want to make PDFs, having zlib
around is very useful indeed...

- Andy