Kunzip is a costless software library that enables decompressing ZIP archives, but it is not an opensource program.
The kunzip.dll has been designed to make it as user-friendly as possible. It can even be used from VisualBasic, making it ideal for programmers. Furthermore, it is fully compatible with zip files created by InfoZip, PkZip, and WinZip. Users can download it from the provided link and view the prototypes for different programming languages that call kunzip.dll.
Originally intended for decompressing PNG graphic files, the developer realized that kunzip's algorithm is similar to that of gzip and zip. They redesigned it to work with .zip files, which posed some challenges. The initial version of kunzip was inefficient and exceedingly slow. However, the latest version runs quite well, and users have reported significant improvements in speed.
One interesting thing about kunzip is that the developer used lookup tables instead of trees, which produced fast results during static huffman decompression for TIFF. However, kunzip's first version built the huffman tables using arrays instead of trees, which was slow. The developer decided to switch to trees for optimal performance, and this move proved worth it.
Kunzip comes with source code, which can be compiled on both Unix/Linux and Windows systems. The developer has also included a Windows DLL for clients who need an unzipping library for Windows. The DLL is easy to use and can be downloaded for free. The developer welcomes any donations made to their PayPal account.
However, users who want to build the DLL need to download the source code and type "make dll." The mingw C compiler is recommended for use since some features may not work in Visual C++. The original version of kunzip was released on May 6, 2005, and decompressed a 120meg file in about 3min40sec on an AMD Athlon XP box. However, after some optimizations, the latest version can decompress the same file in just 20 seconds.
The recent release of kunzip includes a new feature. The developer has changed the license to the LGPL, making it more accessible and user-friendly. Overall, kunzip is an excellent software with great features for decompressing ZIP files.
Version 2006-11-14: N/A