🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <6617:Jan2723:16:0991@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes:

>The best non-Huffman variant of LZ/LZW/MW is Storer's AP coding ...

For the interested reader, said algorithm (AP as in All Prefixes
heuristic), a review of other compression techniques, and a complete
implementation of the algorithm in pascal may be found in Storer's book.[1]

>If James Storer agrees to let everyone use the program without
>restriction, I will place it into the public domain ...

what difference would that do, so long as his patent of the algorithm
stands?

>... Send a polite note to storer@cs.brandeis.edu if you would
>like to see this happen.

to see him release his patent to public, or to allow somebody to implement
his published algorithm and distribute the results?? The latter can be
done without requiring his permission.

>In the meantime, I'm not sure that even a few hundred messages would
>convince Storer, so here's a method that appears to be unpatented. For
>the record, I found Y coding December 26.

Dan, are you absolutely sure this neat Y coding you found has not been
done before? It sounds similar to a dictionary coding technique from
Bentley, Tarjan and others in 1986 CACM [I don't have the exact ref, but
can dig it out if necessary].

In any case, I hope your technique is original. I personally am getting
rather tired of this wee-let-me-patent-my-compression-algorithm crud. One
possible way to beat patented algorithms is to force them into obsolescence.

oz
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[1] Storer, James A., Data Compression: Methods and Theory, Computer
    Science Press, Rockville, Maryland, 1988.
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Where the stream runneth smoothest,   | Internet: oz@nexus.yorku.ca 
the water is deepest.  - John Lyly    | UUCP: utzoo/utai!yunexus!oz