h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am interested in the computer zipped file and the real zip (as in trousers).

Icecoldalex

Could be an onomatopoeic expression for the trousers zip.
No idea why the files have that name, though.

B is right. It is onomatopoeic. When you pull one up or down it makes a zzzzzzzzzz sound.

As for the computer zip files I should think it is a marketing thing to do with the compressed data being packaged up and fastened into a neat little parcel. Zipped up is alliterative and also allows for a convenient and unique file extension.

Allmyjunk.parcel doesn't really work like Allmyjunk.zip.

Similarly in Unix/Linux systems compressed files are called Tarballs and have the suffix .tar. There will be a reason which I can only guess at.

t.

Didn't tar stand for Tape Archive? Back in the bad old days of tape memory?

It seems that zips were invented in America, where they're called zippers: "The B. F. Goodrich Company coined the name Zipper in 1923 for the line of rubber overshoes that it made using the fastener. The name slowly came to be associated with the fastener itself, and eventually acquired generic status."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipper

And here's a lovely picture of a 1914 zipper in the Smithsonian:

http://www.smithsonianlegacies.si.edu/objectdescription.cfm?ID=158

It makes me think of shoving all your files on a suitcase, and sitting on top of it to squash it all down while you struggle to pull the zip closed.

Tar files are still called that from the tape archive command that makes them.
There are still plenty of places that use magnetic tape as backup, I still do at work (hmmm, need to check a tape has been changed before tonights backup).

And the zip related fact I know about - The zippers commonly used in drysuits are developed from NASA designs for spacesuit zips.

Zips were fitted to trosuers for members of the WW2 Guinea Pig Club, RAF airmen who were treated by Plastic Surgeon Archibald McIndoe. Burnt and dressed hands could manage zips but not buttons.

I knew someone would know the origin of the Unix/Linux .tar suffix.

Thanks all.

t.

I'm still thinking it stands for Tape ARchive.

Um, Didn't I agree and confirm that earlier

tar -czf newfile.tar.gz *

create the gzipped tar file newfile.tar.gz from all files in the current directory. A basic use of the tar command.
All sorts of good things can be done with this from creating archives to moving whole directory structures.

Sorry I'm still asleep. Just ignore me until I've had more coffee.