Definition of RAR and WinRAR Format

Rarely does a personal project go so far, but what began as a way to earn a computer new to university studies, it eventually became a standard de facto in the area of ​​compression utilities.

WinRAR was born in Russia at the beginning of the nineties, by the hand of Eugene Roshal, and it became popular through BBSs until it reached the West

Roshal used a algorithm compression created by his older brother Aleksandr Roshal (the acronym RAR stands for Roshal ARchive), and he posted the show on a Russian BBS, on which, originally, it had little success.

We must, however, place ourselves in the context of the time, in which the media storage they had a great cost, and the connections by modem also, reason why any trick used to diminish the size of what was had stored and had to be transmitted, was welcome.

Eugene was requesting a payment for the use of this software indicating, in addition, that the sum of what he obtained would be used to buy a new computer

Something that he was able to do to continue his studies thanks to what different users donated for the use of the program.

Between the factors that elevated WinRAR ahead of other options, the biggest effectiveness of its compression algorithm, which as a result provides files that occupy less space than those generated by other algorithms.

Another success factor is that the program, in addition to handling files in Format RAR is also capable of managing other formats, facilitating the use of a single solution installed on the system to handle all compressed files, removing as a result the competence, unable to handle so many different formats (and despite the fact that it has been incorporating support for different algorithms in different programs).

It has also been saved by the fact that operating systems have not included native support for the RAR algorithm, as they have made with the ZIP format, thus leading to the need for an external utility not included with the system to handle the RAR files.

Theoretically, WinRAR is paid, but in practice it can continue to be used for free

Over time, WinRAR has evolved along with its compression algorithm, and has become multiplatform, being perhaps the compression program that supports greater diversity operating systems (although the ZIP format is more universal).

Currently, we can download WinRAR for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU / Linux, FreeBSD and Android, but in the past we have also been able to do it for platforms that are now very minority such as Solaris.

It is also one of the programs that incorporates the most language support, being available for a wide range of languages, both state official and other regional ones.

Photos: Fotolia - mayartistic / McCarony