Comparison of distribution of .vss and .vsx format stencils

[Paul Herber]

Hi all, something today I found interesting.
I'm in the process of converting all my .vss format stencils to XML format .vsx files. I've put off doing this because of the increased file size; typically a .vsx file is 4 times larger than the equivalent .vss file. For the number and size of the files I distribute this becomes very significant - web server file space and bandwidth all cost money.
However, I find that when I create the .zip and .msi installer files for these stencils that the resulting file is typically half the size of those containing the .vss files. Not only do I save on space and bandwidth but file upload time has been halved, even on a fast broadband link uploading a 20MB file give you time to make a cuppa.