                                The Art
                              of Lossless
                           Data Compression
                                vol. 19b

Here are the results of tests performed in September 2000 to compare
lossless compression of "binary" files by all known good enough programs
developed for such purpose, including RK, DC, YBS, Bzip2, IMP, RAR and 7-zip.

See Archive Comparison Test by J.Gilchrist for more details:  http://act.by.net

If anybody wants to start or continue such tests,
or can suggest some other sets of files, or other compression programs,
 (not sources or algorithm descriptions, executable programs only)
or knows we have missed something important,
 (some new fantastic technology, an algorithm or even a program capable
 of lossless compression of up to 1000:1 etc.)
please let us know immediately: artest@hotmail.ru   Thank you!


[[1]] COMPRESSION QUALITY
=========================
             (see also
             [[2]] Speed
             [[3]] Details
             [[4]] Comments)

Last eleventh line shows results for the sum of all 5029 files in ten sets.

Original  777    ACE32    BEE    BIX      BOA   BZip2     DC      ERI     IMP
length -mu32-mg -m5-d4096 -m3-d3 -m9-mdg  -m15   -k -9  (none) (none) -1-m3-mm

240.36  102.18  105.11  110.61  107.68  107.89  113.02  106.49  109.43  110.73
253.84   100%   107.96  115.15  108.76  114.07  121.75  117.29  120.38  109.99
156.21   100%   103.11  106.63  103.54  104.95  108.42  106.67  107.61  103.74
307.02  107.41  112.65  114.57  114.22  116.18  122.72  108.57  113.77  109.12
170.69  109.38  101.79  116.93  117.09  113.29  114.41  104.91   100%   113.81
382.13  106.09  116.68  121.78  117.98  118.59  127.96  118.46  123.08  123.07
188.88  100.79  104.80  107.38  104.00  107.05  111.64  107.06  109.91  105.80
271.78  103.61  107.77  118.83  113.94  114.86  121.25  112.38  113.37  119.90
135.34   100%   102.11  105.76  102.30  103.55  105.79  105.22  105.26  101.73
352.04  105.47  113.19  116.41  115.32  117.44  128.67  120.72  126.38  119.69
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
228.67  101.35  104.96  110.82  107.80  109.14  114.48  108.42  110.29  109.02


ArHanGel PPMonstr  SBC    RAR     RK     SZip     UHA   7-zip     YBS     ZZip
-1-2-mm -o8-m56   -b19 -m5-mm-mde -mx2 -o0 -b41   -m3     -mx -m16mu-r -b20-mx

109.52  105.02  111.15  109.61   100%   110.04  107.58  114.95  109.93  109.80
124.47  111.26  119.97  113.30  102.96  118.77  107.19  128.13  114.63  116.93
105.95  104.00  108.22  105.84  100.63  107.04  102.94  107.19  105.42  106.82
114.02  112.61  120.67  110.42  105.48  118.99   100%   135.13  113.52  117.50
107.13  111.91  115.71  103.86  106.18  113.73  102.74  120.28  113.16  111.97
123.40  115.65  125.82  127.73   100%   121.56  114.55  126.54  122.03  121.75
108.73  104.85  110.18  108.45   100%   109.24  103.79  112.48  105.54  107.17
119.85  112.02  121.54  118.45   100%   117.94  112.15  121.25  117.62  117.89
104.54  102.97  105.13  102.13  101.51  105.34  102.00  104.58  105.17  104.88
128.50  111.71  126.23  128.44   100%   123.91  111.30  128.79  124.06  121.87
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
111.80  106.77  113.48  109.83   100%   111.85  104.40  116.64  110.25  110.88



[[2]] Speed
===========
7th set, all from ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/win95/proj/tm2k.zip (17Mb)
was used for this test, and an AMD-K6-400 machine with 64M RAM and Windows98.

 Programs,options        Overall      Average      Compress Extract  Compressed
                          score,       Users'        time,   time,     size,
                                       score,       seconds seconds    bytes
                      seconds  %    seconds  %
777   a -mu32 -s      10718   235%   7228   164%     3879    2503    15613186
777   a -mg  -s       10718   235%   7227   164%     3880    2502    15613186
777   a -mg           10176   223%   7127   162%     3388    2514    15388558
7zip  a                4873   107%   4799   109%       83      11    17208118
7zip  a -mx            4930   108%   4797   109%      149      12    17171238
acb   B                6565   144%   5630   128%     1040    1065    16058275
acb   b                7279   160%   6003   136%     1418    1440    15916219
acb   u                8463   186%   6641   151%     2025    2042    15827870
ace32 a                4564   100%   4428   100%      151      15    15832593
ace32 a -d4096         4545   100%   4388   100%      175      15    15678361
ace32 a -d4096 -s-     4652   102%   4481   102%      191      18    15998753
ace32 a -d4096 -m1     4546   100%   4406   100%      156      17    15745557
ace32 a -d4096 -m5     4550   100%   4388   100%      180      16    15675025
arhangel a             6286   138%   5521   125%      850     826    16594841
arhangel a -2   -mm    7249   159%   5796   132%     1615    1002    16679006
arhangel a -1   -mm    4866   107%   4752   108%      128      20    16988655
arhangel a -2   -1     7228   159%   5594   127%     1816     806    16583314
ba     -k              7568   166%   5045   114%     2804     102    16786575
ba     -k  -g          6635   145%   4967   113%     1854     103    16843269
ba     -k  -j          7610   167%   5049   115%     2846     102    16786624
ba     -k  -1          4979   109%   4853   110%      140      95    17078365
ba     -k  -10         4945   108%   4793   109%      169     100    16835584
ba     -k  -50         4955   109%   4782   108%      194     109    16752058
bee    a -m1           5500   121%   5031   114%      522     475    16214602
bee    a -m2           5731   126%   5135   117%      662     635    15962121
bee    a -m3           5955   131%   5228   119%      809     726    15916558
bee    a -m1 -d3       5482   120%   5011   114%      524     468    16164897
bee    a -m2 -d3       5713   125%   5113   116%      667     628    15905824
bee    a -m3 -d3       5934   130%   5193   118%      824     706    15856297
bix    a               4772   104%   4586   104%      207       9    16402319
bix    a -mdg          4783   105%   4581   104%      224      12    16370798
bix    a -m9           4633   101%   4452   101%      202      10    15917029
bix    a -mdg -m9      4650   102%   4446   101%      227      13    15877736
bix    a -mdg -s       4790   105%   4510   102%      311      14    16075174
boa   -m1              6636   146%   5574   127%     1181     796    16776121
boa   -a               8281   182%   6231   142%     2279    1452    16384208
boa   -m15             8786   193%   6424   146%     2625    1633    16303478
boa   -s               8318   183%   6238   142%     2311    1456    16383035
boa   -m15 -s          8832   194%   6430   146%     2670    1639    16285022
bzip2  -k              4924   108%   4792   109%      147      35    17073484
bzip2  -k  -s          4944   108%   4843   110%      113      33    17276170
bzip2  -k  -1          4990   109%   4884   111%      118      31    17430352
bzip2  -k  -5          4917   108%   4810   109%      119      34    17150806
bzip2  -k  -9          4923   108%   4792   109%      146      35    17073484
dc     e               4761   104%   4653   106%      120      63    16482103
dc     e   -fx  -fb    4827   106%   4705   107%      136      58    16682706
dc     e -b16300       6332   139%   5619   128%      793     842    16913763
dc     e -b16300 -mb5  6341   139%   5627   128%      794     849    16913763
dc     e -b12000       5176   113%   4779   108%      442      79    16764158
eri    a   -m1         5819   128%   4907   111%     1013      83    17001695
eri    a   -m2         5809   127%   4876   111%     1038      85    16871942
eri    a   -m3         5840   128%   4863   110%     1086      92    16784470
eri    a               5890   129%   4866   110%     1138      91    16780779
eri    a   -m5         6002   132%   4878   111%     1250      91    16780764
imp98  a               4586   100%   4518   102%       76      10    16202966
imp98  a   -mm         4558   100%   4487   102%       79      10    16092171
imp98  a   -mm  -m3    4577   100%   4467   101%      123      10    16000717
imp98  a   -mm  -2     4740   104%   4603   104%      152      20    16444461
imp98  a   -mm  -s4    4564   100%   4492   102%       81      10    16104472
imp98  a   -2   -s4    4743   104%   4605   104%      154      18    16455088
imp_d  a   -2   -s4    4745   104%   4606   104%      155      20    16455034
pkzip -es              5193   114%   5176   117%       19       7    18601569
pkzip -a               4886   107%   4851   110%       39       7    17426825
pkzip -exx             4896   107%   4847   110%       55       6    17407993
ppmd   e -o5           5006   110%   4817   109%      211     223    16460344
ppmd   e -o7           4997   109%   4806   109%      213     226    16410576
ppmd   e -o9           4999   109%   4807   109%      214     227    16410355
ppmd   e -o5 -m56      5041   110%   4815   109%      251     261    16305961
ppmd   e -o6 -m56      5021   110%   4795   109%      251     260    16235977
ppmd   e -o7 -m56      5037   110%   4793   109%      272     269    16188852
ppmd   e -o8 -m56      5011   110%   4783   109%      254     276    16136880
ppmd   e -o9 -m56      4991   109%   4758   108%      260     262    16091951
ppmonstr e -o5         5292   116%   4964   113%      365     392    16328461
ppmonstr e -o7         5288   116%   4958   112%      367     394    16296439
ppmonstr e -o9         5300   116%   4967   113%      371     400    16305613
ppmonstr e -o5 -m56    5439   119%   5025   114%      460     490    16163504
ppmonstr e -o7 -m56    5430   119%   5007   114%      471     500    16055439
ppmonstr e -o9 -m56    5410   119%   4984   113%      474     498    15979365
rar    a               4805   105%   4653   106%      170      12    16645524
rar    a -mm           4787   105%   4631   105%      175      12    16564039
rar    a -mm  -m1      4804   105%   4669   106%      151      12    16711090
rar    a -mm  -m5      4804   105%   4630   105%      193      12    16556608
rar    a -mm  -mdc     4784   105%   4660   106%      138      12    16683996
rar    a -mm  -mda     4821   106%   4712   107%      122      12    16875793
rar    a -mm  -s       4763   104%   4577   104%      207      11    16362865
rar32  a -mm  -s       4765   104%   4579   104%      208      13    16362865
rk   -mf1              4869   107%   4739   107%      144     127    16551656
rk   -mf2              5043   110%   4777   108%      296     278    16089728
rk   -mf3              5171   113%   4784   109%      431     297    15996404
rk   -mx1              7842   172%   6329   144%     1681    1931    15227508
rk   -mx2              8625   189%   6743   153%     2092    2337    15108076
rk   -mx2 -ft+ -fe+    8636   190%   6767   154%     2077    2362    15109732
sbc   c                4897   107%   4770   108%      142      65    16886710
sbc   c   -b9          4963   109%   4789   109%      194      77    16896566
sbc   c   -b19         5004   110%   4803   109%      225      93    16874886
sbc   c   -b19 -e      4871   107%   4731   107%      156      60    16760182
szip  -v0              4903   107%   4758   108%      162      71    16812371
szip  -o4              4847   106%   4767   108%       89      65    16895668
szip  -o8              4944   108%   4759   108%      205      77    16782635
szip  -o0              6267   137%   4865   110%     1558      57    16749321
szip  -v0 -b41         4923   108%   4773   108%      168      72    16862500
szip  -o4 -b41         4863   106%   4782   108%       91      68    16938561
szip  -o8 -b41         4970   109%   4776   108%      216      79    16833992
szip  -o0 -b41         6162   135%   4869   110%     1438      58    16800606
ufa   a                5099   112%   4602   104%      553      86    16057686
ufa   a -mg  -mu32     5042   110%   4481   102%      624      76    15632188
ufa   a -s   -mu32     5273   116%   4578   104%      772      93    15868931
ufa   a -mg  -s        5273   116%   4578   104%      772      93    15868931
uharc a                4920   108%   4491   102%      478      77    15717022
uharc a -m1            4804   105%   4504   102%      334      72    15835979
uharc a -m3            5098   112%   4471   101%      697      78    15564907
uharc a -m3  -mm       5092   112%   4470   101%      692      77    15564907
uharc a -m3  -md64     5010   110%   4622   105%      432      79    16199790
uharc a -m3 -md2048    5096   112%   4471   101%      695      77    15564907
ybs_d  -y              4885   107%   4708   107%      197      53    16687784
ybs_d -m2mu            4885   107%   4708   107%      198      53    16687784
ybs_d -m16mu           5050   111%   4854   110%      218      49    17220161
ybs_d -m16mu -r        5054   111%   4854   110%      223      47    17224114
zzip   a               5635   123%   4814   109%      912      56    16800833
zzip   a   -mm         5596   123%   4812   109%      872      56    16807633
zzip   a   -mm  -b20   5590   122%   4795   109%      884      54    16749025
zzip   a   -mm  -mx    5499   120%   4705   107%      883      56    16418590

Overall score is calculated by adding compression time, extraction time, and
time it would take to transfer the compressed file over a 28,800bps network:
(compressed_size)/3600 , because 28800 bits_per_second is 3600 bytes_per_second

Average Users' score is calculated by adding (compress_time/10)+ extract_time +
time it would take to transfer the compressed file over a 28,800bps network.
Compression time is divided by 10 here, because more than 90% of people would
never compress anything during their life (with compression programs), but they
use compressed data almost _every_ time they use computers and/or Internet.
That's why compression time is not so actual for them.


[[3]] Details
=============
are no longer put to this main text
(5176 lines reporting 221760 results on 5029 files in 10 sets),
but can be found in FULL version with BINARIES.DAT and *.BAT
at http://geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/1995/artest19.zip
or http://artest1.tripod.com/artest19.zip


[[4]] Comments
==============
Links to download programs:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7-Zip  2.11   :W http://www.7-zip.com/dl/7zip211.exe                              493K
BIX 1.00b7    :W http://www.7-zip.com/dl/ufa/bix100b7.zip                          89K
777 0.04b1    :W http://www.7-zip.com/dl/ufa/777004b1.zip                          72K
UFA 0.04b1    :W http://www.7-zip.com/dl/ufa/ufa004b1.zip                          64K
ArHanGeL 1.40 :a http://geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/6606/arh140.zip            50K
ERI32  4.8fre :e http://geocities.com/eri32/eri48fre.zip                           91K
Imp     1.1   :e http://www.winimp.com/imp110d.zip                                266K
Imp-win 1.12  :W http://www.winimp.com/imp112.exe                                 122K
PkZip   2.50  :a ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/arcers/pk250dos.exe     202K
RK     1.03b1 :e http://malcolmt.tripod.com/downloads/rk103a1d.exe                478K
RK     1.03b1 :W http://malcolmt.tripod.com/downloads/rk103a1w.exe                380K
RAR32  2.71   :e ftp://ftp.netlab.sk/public/rarsoft/rar/rarx271.exe               257K
WinRAR 2.71   :W ftp://ftp.netlab.sk/public/rarsoft/rar/wrar271.exe               588K
PPMD var.F,
PPmonstr v.F  :W ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/win95/compress/ppmdf.zip       97K
ACB 2.00c     :e ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/compress/acb_200c.zip    42K
BOA 0.58b     :e ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.3/sac/pack/boa058.zip                        74K
DC 0.98b      :W ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.3/sac/pack/dc124.zip                         55K
BA 1.00 beta  :e ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.3/sac/pack/ba100b.zip                        60K
Bzip2 1.0.1   :W ftp://sourceware.cygnus.com/pub/bzip2/v100/bzip2-100-x86-win32.exe 68K
SZip 1.12a    :W http://www.compressconsult.com/szip/szip_112a_win32.zip           71K
UHArc 0.2b    :e ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.3/sac/pack/uharc02.zip                      101K
ZZip 0.35g    :W http://www.via.ecp.fr/~damien/zzip/zzip-win32.zip                 23K
ACE32 2.0b3   :W ftp://ftp.forlangs.net/pub/windows/winace/ace20b3.exe            573K
YBS 0.03e     :e http://members.nbci.com/vycct/ybs003ed.zip                        55K
YBS 0.03e     :W http://members.nbci.com/vycct/ybs003ew.zip                        43K
SBC 0.305b    :e http://geocities.com/sbcarchiver/sbc0305b.zip                    158K
BEE 0.4.8     :  mailto:Andrew.Filinsky@p11.f4.n452.z2.fidonet.org

:a - any DOS  - DOS programs, will run under pure DOS or in a DOS box
:e - extender - DOS programs using DOS extenders like DOS/4GW or CWSDPMI
:W - windoze  - Windows95/98/NT/etc programs

If direct link doesn't work-most probably newer version of the program appeared
at the same site: visit web page, or read the whole directory from ftp server
(i.e. try the same URL, but without filename).


Homepages:
~~~~~~~~~~
Arhangel     : http://geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/6606
Eri32        : http://geocities.com/eri32
      mirror : http://artest1.tripod.com
RK           : http://malcolmt.tripod.com
Imp,WinImp   : http://www.technelysium.com.au
      mirror : http://www.winimp.com
ACE32        : http://www.winace.com
PkZip        : http://www.pkware.com
RAR,WinRAR   : http://www.rarsoft.com
BZip2        : http://sources.redhat.com/bzip2
SZip         : http://www.compressconsult.com/szip
ZZip         : http://www.via.ecp.fr/~damien/zzip
YBS          : http://members.nbci.com/vycct
SBC          : http://geocities.com/sbcarchiver
Ufa,777,
    BIX,7-Zip: http://www.7-zip.com
PPMD, PPMonstr, ACB, BA, Bee, BOA, DC, UHArc - no homepage.


What's new:
~~~~~~~~~~~
9 new programs were tested:
PPMD var.Gpre Sep29, PPMonstr var.Gpre Oct4, YBS 0.03e -DOS and Win32 versions,
ZZip 0.35f, SBC 0.304b, ERI32 4.8fre, UFA 0.04b1, 777 0.04b1 .
Newer versions of ZZip, SBC, ACE, UFA are ready, and will be tested next time.

Latest beta versions of BEE, DC, PPMonstr, UFA are available
from authors by e-mail request:
BEE: Andrew.Filinsky@p11.f4.n452.z2.fidonet.org
DC: EdgarBinder@t-online.de
PPMonstr: shkarin@arstel.ru , dmitry.shkarin@mtu-net.ru
UFA: support@7-zip.com

 ACB, BA and PKzip are not tested on all 5029 files any more,
 their results can be found in previous version ARTest vol.18b,
 and in full version artest19.zip (657K) .

 Results of PPMD (an open source version of PPMonstr) and UFA 0.04b1
 are in full version only, BINARIES.DAT file.

Results of old programs (not updated for more than 3 years, and no homepage),
programs with low overall score will not be put to latest versions of ARTest.
And also results of programs that are known to have bugs
(in compression/decompression functions) for more than half a year.

FULL version contains all *.BAT and *.DAT files
you'll need to build 10 directories with 5029 files (artest19.zip\MAKE_BIN\*.*)
and to repeat all our tests (BINS.BAT, BINARIES.DAT).


WARNINGS:
~~~~~~~~~
ACB refuses to take files shorter than 257 bytes.
About 400 such files were processed with "rar a -m0 name.acb name.bin"
(see do_acb_u.bat and do_acb_r.bat).

BA 1.00beta can't losslessly decompress
any file compressed with -f ,
49 files compressed with any option
(astronmy\CRLFTX~1.bin, GFEMER~1.bin, MIRAIN~1.bin, NIL_~1.bin, NIL~1.bin
README~7.bin, SAOSOU~2.bin, STARVI~6.bin, UNIV00~1.bin, ZEROME~1.bin ;
chem\ARCHIV~3.bin, ARCHIV~4.bin, DISK1_~1.bin, DISPOS~3.bin, KHEMCF~1.bin etc.)
It says nothing like "CRC fails".

BEE can't decompress some files compressed in "solid" mode.

DC 0.99.158b fails to decompress HLPCOPY..bin, but only if you compress
with "-mb5" switch and [<output>] filename like "any.dc5".
Says nothing like "CRC fails".

RK 1.03b1 was unable to correctly decompress 55 files
compressed with "-mf2" or "-mf3", reporting
> ERROR 303: CRC check failed.
All are .htm, like font\README~3.BIN , and only one byte differs
after extraction, and no problems if compressed with "-mx2" in all 55 cases.
Unfortunately, 64Mb RAM is not enough to run RK 1.03 with "-mx3":
endless swapping (virtual memory to hard disk) when compressing some binary
files (but no swapping on text files).

Bugs in tested versions of SBC and ZZip were found,
but they are removed from latest versions ZZip 0.35g and SBC 0.305b .

Problems in all other compressors were not found.


The LATEST RELEASE, and all previous versions of these tests can be found
at http://geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/1995/ and http://artest1.tripod.com/



The FINAL PART
==============
>     [[5]] PLEASE read THIS before replying to this article
was removed from this text, but can be easily found at
http://geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/1995/artest10.html
http://artest1.tripod.com/artest10.html

Send your suggestions, comments to artest@hotmail.ru
With best kind regards,
RAO Inc.
