Is it efficient to store embedded resources in C# solution in a *.zip archive?

Question

Heading ##I'd like to add a few dictionaries as an embedded resources into my C# solution (*.dic and *.aff files).

Each dictionary is a simple text file inside, so it can be compressed very well.

Is it efficient to store these dictionaries in a *.zip archive, include archive as an embedded resource into my solution and then extract my dictionaries from archive in runtime? Or are embedded resources compressed by default in an assembly file?

By efficient I meant that the install size would be smaller, and runtime slowdown would not be critical.

Answer 1

Yes.

We can see this by adding a 1MB xml file as an embedded resource. The resulting dll will increase by approx 1MB. If we on the other hand zip it before hand, the resulting dll can increase as little a few kb depending on the compression level of the content.