TkZip - What It Is

TkZip is a graphical X interface to archive management, adding a GUI front end to the standard archiving utilities - tar, gzip, compress, zcat, zip, etc. (you must have the appropriate utilities installed on your system). It provides

• automatic archive type recognition, independent of filename conventions
• easy-to-navigate directory/file selection lists
• archive directory viewing
• viewing or extraction of selected files from an archive
• automatic file type recognition for files within an archive, and MIME style viewer selection
• archive creation/updating (release 0.7.0 and later)
• support for most common archive/compression formats used by Unix and DOS/Windows systems
• tar
• zip (Info-ZIP, PKZIP), including self-extracting .exe files
• gzipped tar (GNU tar/gzip)
• compressed tar
• gzip (GNU compression format)
• compress
• ar (you know, like static linking libraries; this is also the outer wrapper of the .deb files used by the Debian package manager - in a pinch you can explore or install a Debian package with TkZip and a little imagination)
• arj (no comments, please, I still find some of these floating around)
• rar (ibid.)
• shorten (normally used for sound samples, like synth patch files)
• bzip2 (usually superior compression to gzip, at the expense of being slower)
• rpm (if you have to ask, you probably don't need to know)
• ...and more.
• archive device support (floppy disk, tape) under Unix
• support for spacey Windows 95 style filenames (i.e.,, filenames with embedded spaces) in archives created by WinZip

Written in Tcl/Tk for portability and for its familiar Motif-like look and feel, TkZip should be able to run unmodified on any Unix system. It is known to have run on many Unix and Unix-like systems - Linux, FreeBSD, SunOS, Solaris, IRIX, OSF/1, MINIX, to name a few. It also runs on OS/X and MS Windows.

Why It Was Written

I originally wrote TkZip for my own use, circa 1995. I wouldn't dream of installing a new program from an archive without first browsing the README's, etc., to see whether I even want to bother. Now, while I do admire the power and grandeur of a naked Unix command line as much as anyone, I no longer find it fascinating when there's work to be done quickly. After a couple of years' searching, I failed to find a good, flexible, easy to use X Window application for manipulating archive files, that was readily available to the Linux community (or the general Unix community, for that matter), so I decided to write one. Over time, it grew in functionality to the point where it seemed appropriate to clean it up and offer it to the public (1996).

For years, Windows users had had the luxury of using WinZip®. Even Info-ZIP, better known in the Unix world, had for some time had a GUI interface available -- for Windows users. It seemed to me unconscionable that users of a powerful graphical environment like X should not enjoy similar convenience.

TkZip is not an imitation of WinZip, whose author I hold in the utmost esteem. It certainly is intended to provide X users with comparable convenience in manipulating archive files, but it does not attempt to mimic either the appearance or the behavior of WinZip. Nor is its name intended to suggest any connection with PKZIP®, or any other product from PKWARE, Inc. Tcl/Tk developers traditionally like to call their programs something like "TkMySuperWhizbangLittleProgram-Thingie", and who am I to flout tradition?

I am planning to re-release the program under an open source license, and am currently evaluating the options, rather leaning toward a BSD-style license

However, TkZip was originally released under a fairly liberal shareware license - meaning that pretty much everybody could use it for free. The remainder of this page is the original License and Registration verbiage, soon to be superseded.

This program is copyrighted shareware. You are perfectly free to download it and use it. You may freely redistribute it non-commercially, so long as you do not modify it. You may modify your own personal copy (now, how would I stop you, anyhow?), as long as it is for legal, moral, and non-fattening purposes. I don't intend to insert any annoyance windows to remind you that you're running an unregistered copy. (The "About" window will pop up once, when you first execute the program, to satisfy the legalese requirements.) If this policy is not clear, you can read the legalese.

Distributors of Linux, FreeBSD, or other free Unix variants, commercial or otherwise, and regardless of medium, are specifically exempted from the non-commercial restriction above with respect to inclusion of an unregistered copy of TkZip with their distributions, so long as the code is not modified (except as authorized by the author - usually for compatibility with the distribution's installation procedures) and is sourced from an authorized repository (like this one), and the author is duly notified of such distribution. Additionally, distributions sourced from a standard public ftp site, such as Sunsite or any of its mirrors, incur no obligation to notify the author. (Actually, the policy applies to any distributions of standard ftp sites, whether specifically Linux-oriented or not. I do not view this as "commercial", though you may have to pay a fee for the distribution media. The Linux clause is specifically intended to exempt commercial Linux distributors like Caldera or Red Hat.)

If you like the program, find it useful, and would like to continue using it, please register it. If you would like to license it for personal use, that would be greatly appreciated, but it is not required. If you use it regularly in your work, you or your employer/school/whatever should license it.

The program has built-in "Register" and "Bug Report" functions. Please use these, at least for your first communication with me: they append some information about your sytem that I will have to have if you need help with a problem.

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