Compression with *.zip output

[Manolis Kiagias]

Polytropon wrote:
> On Sat, 21 Mar 2009 08:47:06 +0100 (CET), "Zbigniew Szalbot" <z.szalbot at lcwords.com> wrote:
>   
>> Hello,
>>
>> Is there a command utility to help me compress files with *.zip extenstion
>> so that windows users can download and unpack it without using any special
>> software?
>>     
>
> Maybe this is a stupid follow-up question, but... since WHEN is
> "Windows" able to handle any kind of archive file (except its
> own CAB format) without installing any third party software?
>
> "Windows" users NEED to install additional software for every
> little piece that a proper OS should be able to do on its own...
>
>   
Wildly off-topic as we are discussing Windows, but all recent versions
(XP, Vista, etc) can handle zip files. They call them "compressed
folders" (don't confuse with NTFS compression though) and even have a
silly wizard-like interface for extracting files from them.  If you
don't like it you can always install WinZip to take over this function.