Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!jbs
From: jbs@eddie.MIT.EDU (Jeff Siegal)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: MNP make for a faster modem?
Keywords: MNP
Message-ID: <7993@eddie.MIT.EDU>
Date: 29 Jan 88 02:09:26 GMT
References: <3027@killer.UUCP> <6678@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <6701@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <959@ih1ap.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: jbs@eddie.MIT.EDU (Jeff Siegal)
Organization: MIT, EE/CS Computer Facilities, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 13

In article <959@ih1ap.ATT.COM> jfs@ih1ap.UUCP (J.F. Shumway) writes:
>Yer right. Compression in the higher level MNP protocols is done by
>simple run length encoding. [...]
>This may be a win if your data is, say, blank (\040)
>padded into 80-80 card images for shipment to some IBM dinosaur,
>but it doesn't gain you much in a Unix environment. 

I don't think this is true.  The Microcom literature I've seen claims
that MNP uses dynamic bit lengths for characters, so more frequently
used characters use less bits (like Huffman).  So even normal
interactive use will benefit somewhat.

Jeff Siegal