Since you're using linux, I would use gzip in a pipe. That's the way it's done in the unix/linux world. Why would you want to roll your own compression/decompression when there's a pretty good program that works already? It looks like you want it to work in both Windows and linux. You can use pipes in Windows, too, but I haven't done it myself. Describe your application - is this something to handle nonvisual service requests, or does it need to work with regular web pages? Does it have to inter-operate with other systems? Eric ----------- To unsubscribe from this list, send an empty e-mail message to: delphizip-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and put the word unsubscribe in the subject.