Octave and gzipped files

[Joseph Wakeling]

Hello all,

Is it possible for Octave to read data from gzipped ascii files?

I'm having to deal with some rather large data files from simulations
and it would be convenient to gzip them---it reduces their size by
anything from 65-70%.

If Octave can't directly read the gzipped file I suppose an alternative
would be for Octave to call gzip to temporarily unzip the file, read the
data, and then zip it back up again.  Is this possible?

For a long-term solution, are there any good storage methods for large
datasets that anyone can recommend, methods that are Octave and MATLAB
compatible?

Thanks in advance,

    -- Joe