> The problem is
> that ZIP is non-streaming -- you have to download the entire zip file
> before you can start processing it, since the directory information is
> at the end.
Each member in the ZIP file has a header, so you can read the members
without reading the header first. The JDK has a class that reads a ZIP file
from a stream:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/api/java/util/zip/ZipInputStream.html
Also, HTTP 1.1 has byte-ranges, which means, at least using HTTP 1.1, you
don't have to download the entire zip file even if you need to get the
directory.
James
