Mind Warp File 62

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Mind Warp

 · 5 years ago

  

 
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               [ Mind Warp  -  Volume #4, Issue #07, File #062 ] 
                   [ "Compression Utilities" by >Anonymous< ] 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
                           Compression Utilities 
                                [Anonymous] 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

           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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