Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site aicchi.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!aicchi!dbb
From: dbb@aicchi.UUCP (Burch)
Newsgroups: net.sources.mac
Subject: Shrink To Fit (STF) Mac data compression.
Message-ID: <678@aicchi.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 15-Feb-86 12:24:00 EST
Article-I.D.: aicchi.678
Posted: Sat Feb 15 12:24:00 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Feb-86 07:44:07 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Analysts International Corp; Chicago Branch
Lines: 26


Howdy!  This is Shrink To Fix, a shareware program that seems to be worth
the $5.00 that the fellow is asking for it.  It will compress any mac file
into a smaller file.  Some files compress better than others.  It depends
upon the frequency of repeating strings of bits.  Files that are close to
random (such as the recently sent digitized music) will not compress much at
all. There are better results with applications, pictures, and data files.

I compressed MacWrite, and then BINHEX'ed (V4) the results.  The sizes were;

MacWrite            70646 Bytes
MacWrite.stf        59909 Bytes
MacWrite.Hqx        94667 Bytes
MacWrite.stf.Hqx    81236 Bytes

From this I conclude that this would be useful for posting some files to
USENET, since it will reduce that amount of data that the backbone sites
have to carry, as well as reducing the time required to download the files
from the UNIX host...

-- 
-David B. (Ben) Burch
 Analyst's International Corp.
 Chicago Branch (ihnp4!aicchi!dbb)

"Argue for your limitations, and they are your's"