> > > > I have a local gzip. But I want to do things with the
> > > > source files without needing to use gzip.
> > >
> > > Does Emacs not just do everything for you?
> >
> > No. Neither Emacs nor other programs always automatically
> > unzip a file on the fly. Nor should they, necessarily.
>
> Uh ? Emacs does this for quite a time. At least Emacs-25.
You cannot assume that everything in Emacs does so.
And certainly other programs run from Emacs, including such
simple things as `grep', depending on the platform, do not
necessarily do that.
> And all .el files are gzipped when installed by default.
"Installed"? What does that mean for you? Perhaps you are
assuming that what it means for you is what it means for
everyone?
For me, on MS Windows, it means just downloading and
unpacking a zip archive that includes executables, source
files, etc.