| RavenBlog | 
 
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| Comments on Wednesday 14 May 2003: | 
| Also in the "pointlessly making computer more efficient" line of thought comes 7-Zip, a Winzip alternative that behaves how I would want such a program to - ie. it's small, fast, and doesn't bother me with output I don't care about. Its within-the-program interface is a bit clumpy, but it makes up for that by doing everything I'd generally use within the right-click menu. It also provides "7z" compression which proved to be 8% more efficient than zip, and approximately level with bzip, in the one small file I just tested it on. (via Nik)
[18:53] | 
| Nik | 
| It gets better as the input increases. I was installing a windows->hitachi cross-compiling gcc earlier, and it compressed 39MB to 2.3MB, where the BZip2 was 6.3MB. This with 'solid' archiving, which is best for size, less best for security. | 
| Nik | 
| Oh, and it turned a 950Kb zip into a 450Kb 7z, containing 4.9MB of Stuff. | 
| Nik | 
| I probably meant reliability or integrity, rather than security. | 
| Solistus | 
| that's pretty impressive compression... but can anyone without 7-Zip actually decompress these files? Is the format supported by Stuffit or other default utilities?  | 
| RavenBlack | 
| Of course not. That's not the point. I don't compress things for other people. | 
| RavenBlack | 
| It does have a library, too, so I could use it in install programs or for compression of level files or game graphics or sounds. | 
| RavenBlack | 
| And the program supports zip and bzip and such, so it replaces winzip as a decompressor. | 
| Eps | 
| ^ /me wonders how high a score I got!? (Blue) Eps - Bleh...  |