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To: python-list@python.org
From: Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu>
Subject: Re: What does zip mean?
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 19:39:22 -0500
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On 11/10/2014 3:36 PM, Cameron Simpson wrote:
> On 10Nov2014 17:19, Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>> On 2014-11-10, giacomo boffi <giacomo_boffi@inwind.it> wrote:
>>> To help you understanding what is the `zip` builtin, please forget
>>> about PKZip etc and think about the _zip fastener_ or _zipper_ in
>>> your bag or in your trousers
>>>
>>> In the bag you have two sequences of teeth that the zipper
>>> binds together in interlocking pairs
>>
>> No, you don't. That's not how a zipper works.  Each tooth from side A,
>> isn't bound with one from side B.  It's bound with _two_ of them from
>> side B. And each of those is in turn bound with an additional tooth
>> from side A, and so on...
>
> This is true, but the analogy is still the correct one:-)

Perhaps ironically in this context, zippers replaced hook-and-eye 
fastening, where the two sequences *are* matched in parallel.  "Hookless 
fastener" was one of the original names (Wikipedia).

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy