Leonard,

regarding compression, there is also a ported version of ZIP/UNZIP
available for MPE/iX. It is based on the InfoZIP freeware, not
shareware like PKZIP or WinZIP, but uses compatible .zip archive
files. Also see www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip or somesuch for details
on InfoZIP and its redistribution rights.

Zip does not only compress but also allow to package multiple files
into one archive. Gzip is typically combined with tar for this task.

Lars.