I am afraid that there is not true answer here.
The note on the external tool for the zip format indeed says that what is need is either an external tool or the zipfile module. And the zipfile module is in the standard distribution since Python 1.6 that I hope is no longer of current use...
If Python fellows have not made a clear choice on one single format, and instead use different defaults depending on the host architecture, I think that I am not allowed to advise you one format for general use.
So I will stick the the defaults:
- if you target mainly Windows or Linux use the default for the target system
- if your development teams has chosen one format, use it
- if your development team mainly uses Windows or Linux, use the default for that system
Else, you are on your own, and as far as I am concerned I just use the default for my own development system.