Re: LZ: Compression and patents


[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: LZ: Compression and patents



On Wed, 11 Sep 1996, barrym wrote:


> > I believe that LZW is no longer patented. I think Microsoft actually uses
> > it in the real-time compression interface in DOS 6 and later.
> > Arithmetic, however, I *know* is still patented--which is why the MRCI
> > doesn't use it, even though it is a better algorithm.
> > BTW--no algorithm works very well for code. I'd say 20 percent compression
> > would be very good. This means that this whole project might not have much
> > in the way of usable results! However, you might prove me wrong--I'd love
> > to see it. Plus, it would be a great learning experience!
> I just went to my util directory, since it contains lots and lots
> of small program files, and used pkzip to compress all the files
> that began with F, then took an average on the compression.  It
> was 41%.  That means they were now 41% their former size, or they
> were reduced by 59%.


I posted before that a zip of 167 .85s files (The exact stuff on the calc
almost) got a compression ration of 46%.  That's REALLY good, but I don't know
if ZCompress will equal zip.


                              The nice thing about Windows is that it does
Tony Lieuallen                     not just crash...  It displays a dialog
marvin@mars.superlink.net               box and lets you press 'OK' first.
http://mars.superlink.net/marvin/home   
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/1171/                   


References: