Hi Rick

Thanks for the comments. They do help a lot.

>Using the 7Zip command line in particular is pretty powerful and provides likely more features that most components and you avoid COM registration and licensing issues

I'll certainly give the 7zip stuff a try. As I said the app is currenlty deployed as a zipped "7zip-based-self-exe" (no installer anymore). I like their SIMPLE engineering. I just bumped into this (on their site:

"7za.dll works via COM interface"

Do you feel it could work from VFP, directly or via the open-sourced VszLib (7-zip VB6 Helper) ? As I said, last time I touched a (plain-C) compiler (any kind of) was 1992-94 or so. I feel quite unsafe when running into anything like a recent C++ compiler:(.

Daniel

By the way, I am trying to cover a series of fully distinct needs here. The 7zip is possibly a solution for a first level implementation for plain xml-formatted resource-zipping and unzipping first:)

I'd prefer a more sophisticated solution with more functionality under the hood as we may decide to move one step up in terms functionality later with AES en/de-cription functionality in-memory zip-unzip. That's were a swiss knife suc as chilkat may possibly offer value.

What is possibly confusing in my initial mail relates to the fact that I am constantly pondering the cost in terms of application size. I do care the download size (who does anyway?). I mind the exe size. This bit of software runs a single exe (à la molebox) quite fine. No dll of any type is visible to the user or admin. Not bad.

Every piece of lib added, whether an ocx or a dll gets into this monolithic exe with some implications of course in terms of RAM usage. The VFP stuff is of course now the least of my worries and the various components that build up the stuff are getting more and more significant over time. Have to weigh the pros and cons of adding dependencies, dll, ocx or, in this case possibly an exe.

This application is certainly more of a hack to-day as a lot of oldish vfp designed stuff. I wish the glue for it would be python instead of VFP since most of my requirements would most certainly be care for by the python standard lib. But at this stage, the rewrite is still in infancy and good ol' VFP does its job pretty well on win32 anyway.

As I said, as a start, thanks for the comments. They do help a lot