Re: Compression tool based on Rabin chunks - integrate into gzip?

[Jim Meyering]

Bobby Martin wrote:
> *New lossless compression tool*
> I have written a lossless compression tool based on Rabin chunks that,
> when used in conjunction with gzip, produces files that are between 8%
> and 33% smaller.  The median amount saved in my sample files is about
> 11%.
>
> *Integration into gzip?*
> I would love to integrate this into gzip after an appropriate period
> of testing.  This is an exploratory email to see if this is possible,
> and introduce the tool for interested parties if it's not.
>
> I'm not sure what the mandate is on gzip - what are the restrictions
> on the algorithm(s) used, time performance, memory performance, and
> temporary files.

Thanks for your interest.
However, gzip is in maintenance-only mode.
There are far better free compression tools (http://tukaani.org/xz/),
and I am working on gzip solely to fix bugs and maintain a certain
level of portability and robustness.

I'm sure that if you can improve upon xz's overall compression performance,
its author would be interested in integrating your improvement(s).