[A83] Re: Is compression possible?
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[A83] Re: Is compression possible?
I'd say just use the archive :-)
Although it would be cool if someone made a compression app
-----Original Message-----
From: assembly-83-bounce@lists.ticalc.org
[mailto:assembly-83-bounce@lists.ticalc.org] On Behalf Of Patrick
Davidson
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 7:27 PM
To: assembly-83@lists.ticalc.org
Subject: [A83] Re: Is compression possible?
On Wed, 24 Apr 2002, Patai Gergely wrote:
> I don't think you can gain too much memory from compressing
> binary executables. I just tried pkzip on such a binary,
> and the result was 66% the size of the original. However,
> it's a very complicated algorithm in the light of the 83's
> capabilities, the compressor/decompressor would take more
> space than it saved...
The Lite86 decompression code from the TI-86 (which would also run on a
TI-83+) is only about 50 bytes in size. So unless the compression
decreases a program's size by less than 50 bytes, the self-extracting
compressed program would be smaller. And even if the gain is small,
giving output that is 80% of the original, that could still make the
difference between being able to have 25 games on your TI-83+ versus
only
20 without it.
> Compressing data is another issue, but my personal opinion
> is that writing programs in a clever way (using math
> instead of large tables where possible) yields the best
> results. A general compression algorithm won't work well in
> such a limited environment.
Many programs do include data (such as text, graphics, or tile maps)
that
could be compressed in its most natural format.
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