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From: brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein)
Newsgroups: comp.compression,alt.comp.compression
Subject: Re: theoretical compression factor
Message-ID: <15098:Mar2512:53:1291@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
Date: 25 Mar 91 12:53:12 GMT
References: <1991Mar25.031214.25696@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <1991Mar25.054838.15588@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>
Organization: IR
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In article <1991Mar25.054838.15588@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> kym@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (R. Kym Horsell) writes:
> The theoretical compression factor for my binary strings example
> would therefore be
> 	2p(1-p)
> where p is the proportion of 0's (or 1's -- it doesn't matter).

There is no way that a compressor can turn every string with as many 0's
as 1's into a string of half the length.

---Dan