Why store the files as compressed if you need to merge them? You're not saving anything by zipping them up as a compressed archive. Subversion uses diff format to store changes, so each revision only stores the differences from the previous version.
In fact, you're probably wasting a lot more room storing these files as a compressed archive. Each change in that compressed archive means storing the differences between one compressed archive vs. the other, and the differences are probably pretty major since minor differences in compressed files can filter throughout the entire compressed archive. So, uncompress them, and store them as pure XML files. Then, you can use Subversion to track individual diffs and do your merges. By the way, Subversion default diff and merge tools aren't too good for XML because XML files aren't line oriented. Fortunately, you can specify your own diff and merge tools when you use Subversion. Find a good XML diff and merge tool for these files. -- David Weintraub qazw...@gmail.com
