Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!tuegate.tue.nl!rc3.urc.tue.nl!tgcpwd
From: tgcpwd@rc3.urc.tue.nl (Wim van Dorst)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Compression programs: compress vs lharc vs comic
Keywords: Compr. rate: comic, Speed: compress
Message-ID: <1822@tuegate.tue.nl>
Date: 7 Jul 90 14:02:19 GMT
Sender: news@tuegate.tue.nl
Lines: 57


Hello *,

I have tested the newly posted lharc and comic and compared them with
the old compress.  I took a large binary file (kermit), a large source
file (three concatenated floppy.c) and an archive file (ar q wmail/*,
thus bin source object doc etc).  I noted down the comparative sizes,
the time it took to compress and to decompress.  Lo and behold:

                    Original       compress        lharc         comic
binary
size (bytes)          63920          50539         34875         34222
size (%)                100             79            55            54
relative (%)                           100            69            68
compr time (sec)                        56           135          1207
decompr time (sec)                      34            66            50

source
size (bytes)         114114          48324         40625         37542
size (%)                100             42            36            33
relative (%)                           100            84            78
compr time (sec)                        71           224          1781
decompr time (sec)                      40            76            65

archive
size (bytes)         151896          95007         64762         61669
size (%)                100             63            43            41
relative (%)                           100            68            65
compr time (sec)                       128           290          2353
decompr time (sec)                      71           121            98

The conclusions are obvious (to me :-):
When you're keen on speed and have plenty of disk media: 
	do not compress at all.
When you're keen on speed, but rather low on disk media: 
	use oldy-but-goody compress 
When you have hardly any space on disk, when you've to use these very
small 360kB floppy for archiving like I, but you do have some computer
time to spare (e.g.in the small hours), like I:
	use comic
When you want a reasonable inbetween:
	use lharc


_My_ choice is definitively comic, but I must say _each_ program 
has its own advantages.


ps. Due to official regulations which I cannot sufficiently influence,
I seem to have trouble sending and receiving mail. I assume though
that the .urc.tue.nl domain should work properly for me now.

         Met vriendelijke groeten, Wim 'Blue Baron' van Dorst
  ------------------------------------------------------------------
  Blue Baron = Wim van Dorst, voice (+31) 074-443937 and 02152-42319
       baron@wiesje.mug.hobby.nl or tgcpwd@eutrc3.urc.tue.nl
                  "This sentence have three erors."