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Miloslav Ciz 2023-08-26 22:09:20 +02:00
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compression.md
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Compression means encoding [data](data.md) (such as images or texts) in a different way so that the data takes less space (memory) while keeping all the important [information](information.md), or, in plain terms, it usually means "making files smaller". Compression is pretty important so that we can utilize memory or bandwidth well -- without it our hard drives would be able to store just a handful of videos, internet would be slow as hell due to the gigantic amount of transferred data and our [RAM](ram.md) wouldn't suffice for things we normally do. There are many [algorithms](algorithm.md) for compressing various kinds of data, differing by their complexity, performance, efficiency of compression etc. The reverse process to compression (getting the original data back from the compressed data) is called **decompression**. The ratio of the compressed data size to the original data size is called **compression ratio** (the lower, the better). The science of data compression is truly huge and complicated AF, here we'll just mention some very basics. Also watch out: compression algorithms are often a [patent](patent.md) mine field.
{ I've now written a tiny LRS compression library/utility called shitpress, check it out at https://codeberg.org/drummyfish/shitpress. It's fewrer than 200 LOC, so simple it can nicely serve educational purposes. ~drummyfish }
{ I've now written a tiny LRS compression library/utility called [shitpress](shitpress.md), check it out at https://codeberg.org/drummyfish/shitpress. It's fewer than 200 LOC, so simple it can nicely serve educational purposes. The principle is simple, kind of a dictionary method, where the dictionary is simply the latest output 64 characters; if we find a long word that occurred recently, we simply reference it with mere 2 bytes. It works relatively well for most data! ~drummyfish }
{ There is a cool compressing competition known as Hutter Prize that offers 500000 pounds to anyone who can break the current record for compressing [Wikipedia](wikipedia.md). Currently the record is at compressing 1GB down to 115MB. See http://prize.hutter1.net for more. ~drummyfish }