Filecompression

Ways of compressing files and directories include:

zip	.zip	This compresses multiple files and directories into one directory. zip support is built into Windows Explorer (but note: viewing the contents of a zip archive is not the same as unpacking it.) Download the command version laszip.exe here or from... Older versions cannot handle files larger than 4GB.
7zip	.7z	This is much like zip.
laszip	.laz	As las point files can be large, Martin Isenburg was kind enough to write a special program to compress and uncompress themin ways customized to las formats. Compressed files are ususally 7-20% of their original size. Compressed files have a .laz extension. There is a one-to-one correspondence of las to laz files. Download laszip.exe here or from rapidlasso.
gzip	.gz	OBSOLETEThis gnu software was needed while we waited for the copyright on LZW compression to run out. .gz files match the input files one-to-one. Download gzip.exe Warning to chrome users: Chrome may uncompress a .gz on the fly, but neglect to strip off the .gz extension.
compress	.Z	OBSOLETE This unix program became a dinosaur when copyrights were enforced. Remember, Jack?
tar	.tar	OBSOLETE IN THIS CONTEXT This command is as old as unix. It combined files and directories without compressing. It was customary to tar a directory and then gzip, ususally through a pipe. For example: tar cf - acme.e00 wickersham.e00 \| gzip -c > acwick.e00.tar.gz to compress or gunzip -c acwick.e00.tar.gz \| tar -xf - to uncompress.
tiff	.tif	Nowadays, .tif and .png files are internally compressed. No further compression is required. Our .tif files are geotiffs, so GIS software will place them properly on a map. Some of our tifs are 8-bit grayscale images, but some are 32-bit floating-point data files which can be read only by GIS software or by matlab.
no compression	wget	The wget program can download entire directory trees, but it works best with indexed directories. We have started to index these directories. You can open the .html file corresponding to a directory. In some cases, you might want to download individual files, but you will probably follow the instructions for downloading the whole thing with wget.

Join the fray

Lately we have been experimenting and tussling over the best way to post files for download. (Yes, we know that there is more to the web than file downloads. We hope to eventually have a gis server and/or image server. Map servers too? Who knows.) But how do you like our files?

Like our filegeodatabases? Do we need to be more careful to create older versions of the geodatabase format? (We have been creating version 10.0 filegeodatabases, but we suspect that large pyramids work badly in earlier formats.)
Would you rather have large 8-bit and 32-bit TIFF files?
As many files start out with compression, zipping is often more useful for combining than for compressing. How about using wget instead?
When we do zip, do you prefer .zip files or .7z files?
Tiles are so small and numerous. Raise your hand if you are fond of tiles.
When we do use tiles, are we all okay with tiff format? Would anyone mind if the .e00.gz files were retired to a farm in the country where they could run around and get plenty of fresh air?

Some answers will vary for raster and point data.
Any other concerns?
We apologize for the fact that a shape files is not a single file.
Write with your concerns to Drew and Harvey. Or should we start a blog?

draft 9/30/2016