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[ Mind Warp - Volume #4, Issue #07, File #062 ]
[ "Compression Utilities" by >Anonymous< ]
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Compression Utilities
[Anonymous]
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Compression Comparisons between .ZIP, .ARJ, and .LZH using
references from a compressed file(.TXT, .EXE, .GIF.)
(* WARNING : THIS FILE CONTAINS NO HUMOR, SICKO STORIES, OR INTERESTING
MATERIAL. IT IS MERELY A FACTUAL ARTICLE ON COMPRESSION.
MIND WARP HAS HAD NO FACTUAL ARTICLES, SO I WROTE THIS ONE.
READ IT. *)
There are many different compression utilites available for
use in the pc world to shrink the average filesize for more room on the
host compters hard drive. Some of the most common for the DOS operating
system include PkZip, Arj, and Lharc. These utilites have obvious advatages
for the user. Creating more disk space, packaging many files into a small
mobile file that can be extracted elswhere, and the ease of moving such files
are certainly transparent. However, these compression utilites all use
a different algorythm for their storage capabilites, and as data suggests,
these different algorythm's are not all suitable for compressing all types
of files with the best compression ratio. Indeed, in some instances, the
compression utility can actually increase the size of the file.
The procedure below outlines the use of three compression utilites,
PkZip, Arj, and Lharc, and their induvidal results in the compression of
three types of files, ascii text files (.TXT), executables (.EXE), and
graphics (.GIF) files. As the data suggests, different compression utilites
can be more effective on certain files than others.
Procedure
Three files were randomly selected off of a hard drive contributed
by a willing pc user. These files were as follows:
FileName Size Type
------------ ------- -----------------
SCANDISK.EXE 124,262 Executable
GENERIC1.TXT 86,303 Ascii Text File
TESLA-02.GIF 63,885 GiF Graphics File
The files were then compressed using the three compression utilites keeping
the same filename, with a new extension. (ie. .ZIP, .ARJ, or .LZH.)
Data + Results.
FileName Compression Name Original Size Compressed Size Rank
------------- ---------------- ------------- --------------- ----
SCANDISK.EXE SCANDISK.ZIP 124,262 120,715 #3
SCANDISK.EXE SCANDISK.ARJ 124,262 120,696 #2
SCANDISK.EXE SCANDISK.LZH 124,262 120,666 #1
------------- ---------------- ------------- --------------- ----
GENERIC1.TXT GENERIC1.ZIP 86,303 31,716 #1
GENERIC1.TXT GENERIC1.ARJ 86,303 31,925 #2
GENERIC1.TXT GENERIC1.LZH 86,303 33,517 #3
------------- ---------------- ------------- --------------- ----
TESLA-02.GIF TESLA-02.ZIP 63,885 63,775 #1
TESLA-02.GIF TESLA-02.ARJ 63,885 63,911 #3
TESLA-02.GIF TESLA-02.LZH 63,885 63,834 #2
------------- ---------------- ------------- --------------- ----
Conclusion
The data shows that not all the compression utilites work the same
on certain files. For executables (.EXE), Lharc is clearly the utility
to use. For ascii text (.TXT), and for graphics files such as GiF (.GIF),
PkZip should be used. Arj never placed 1st in any of the trials, but one
would note that Arj actually increased the file size when attempting to
compress the Gif file. All in all, either PkZip or Lharc are recommended for
use in the compression field. Both have excellent help available, and are
well documented. Keep in mind however, that these are not the ONLY
compression programs available for the pc user. Not mentioned in this
article were such compression utilites as .ZOO, and .UC2.
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