                                The Art
                              of Lossless
                           Data Compression
                                vol. 18b

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.

PPMonstr  ACB    ACE32     BOA     BA      BEE    BIX    BZip2     DC      ERI
-o8 -m56   u  -m5 -d4096  -m15  -k -50 -m3 -d3 -m9 -mdg  -k -9  (none)  (none)

105.10  104.79  105.11  107.89  109.60  110.61  107.68  113.02  106.49  109.43
108.07  108.11  104.85  110.78  115.42  111.83  105.63  118.24  113.91  116.91
103.36  102.41  102.46  104.29  106.27  105.96  102.89  107.74  106.01  106.97
112.64  112.95  112.65  116.18  119.09  114.57  114.22  122.72  108.57  113.77
111.93  113.23  101.79  113.29  113.26  116.93  117.09  114.41  104.91   100%
115.77  116.72  116.68  118.59  123.06  121.78  117.98  127.96  118.46  123.08
104.92  104.47  104.80  107.05  109.17  107.38  104.00  111.64  107.06  109.91
112.14  112.93  107.77  114.86  118.97  118.83  113.94  121.25  112.38  113.37
101.44  100.13  100.59  102.01  103.45  104.18  100.78  104.21  103.65  103.70
111.74  114.51  113.19  117.44  122.32  116.41  115.32  128.67  120.72  126.38
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
106.81  106.96  104.96  109.14  111.78  110.82  107.80  114.48  108.42  110.29


  IMP  ArHanGel  PkZip    RAR      RK     SZip    UHA     YBS   7zip      ZZip
-1-m3-mm -1-2-mm -exx -m5-mde-mm -mx2 -o0 -b41 -m3-mm    -m8mu  -mx -mx-mm-b20

110.73  109.52  116.94  109.61   100%   110.04  107.58  110.32  114.95  117.35
106.82  120.88  126.23  110.03   100%   115.35  104.10  112.40  124.43  117.76
103.09  105.29  107.41  105.17   100%   106.37  102.29  104.82  106.52  108.23
109.12  114.02  138.02  110.42  105.48  118.99   100%   114.37  135.13  110.55
113.81  107.13  121.43  103.86  106.18  113.73  102.74  113.17  120.28  106.23
123.07  123.40  129.54  127.73   100%   121.56  114.55  122.64  126.54  132.90
105.80  108.73  114.03  108.45   100%   109.24  103.79  105.31  112.48  108.84
119.90  119.85  124.86  118.45   100%   117.94  112.15  117.26  121.25  123.69
100.22  102.99  103.42  100.61   100%   103.77  100.48  103.65  103.02  105.90
119.69  128.50  133.47  128.44   100%   123.91  111.30  124.06  128.79  136.23
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
109.02  111.80  118.61  109.83   100%   111.85  104.40  110.49  116.64  114.32



[[2]] Speed
===========
was not tested this time.
Next release will be soon.


[[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/artest18.zip
or http://artest1.tripod.com/artest18.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
ArHanGeL 1.40 :a http://geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/6606/arh140.zip            50K
ERI32  4.7fre :e http://geocities.com/eri32/eri47fre.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 0.35e    :W http://www.via.ecp.fr/~damien/zzip/zzip-win32.zip                 24K
ACE32 2.0b2   :W ftp://ftp.forlangs.net/pub/windows/winace/ace20b2.exe            546K
YBS 0.03d     :e http://members.nbci.com/vycct/ybs003dd.zip                        48K
YBS 0.03d     :W http://members.nbci.com/vycct/ybs003dw.zip                        42K

: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
Ufa,777,
    BIX,7-Zip: http://www.7-zip.com


What's new:
~~~~~~~~~~~
All contents of this file:
20 programs were tested on 5029 test files.
FULL version contains all *.BAT and *.DAT files
you'll need to build 10 directories with 5029 files (artest18.zip\MAKE_BIN\*.*)
and to repeat all our tests (bins.bat, binaries.dat).

You will also need the following to extract .ZIP, .Z, .CAB, .1, .LZH archives:
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.3/simtelnet/msdos/arcers/lha255e.exe (64K)
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.3/sac/pack/i5comp21.rar (95K)
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.3/sac/pack/icomp95.zip (60K)
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.3/sac/pack/ttcomp.zip (25K)
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.3/sac/pack/stix.arj (21K)
pkunzip (see link above).

DOS prompt calculator with user def. functions
(math.exe being used for ARTest) can be found at
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/calculte/mathfc24.zip (26K)

Ultra Precision Command Timer 1.6 - Freeware (C) 1993 by Erik de Neve
(upct.exe being used for ARTest) can be found at
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.3/sac/utilmisc/upct16.zip (7K)

MultiEdit 7.00jP-386 was used for files editing with macrocommands, blocks etc,
and standard fc.exe from any DOS/Windows package - for comparing files.

Latest beta versions of BEE, DC, PPMonstr 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



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".

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).

ZZip 0.35e can't decompress only one file, mapping\DEMOMP~1.bin .
With any (compress) options, "ZZip error : CRC error".

UFA and 777 can't find files with long names,
if you give short versions of that long names,
and they can't process files with two or more extensions.
BIX, third version of UFA, was tested instead.

Problems in all other 15 compressors were not found.

File order (in binaries.dat) is wrong in some columns:
- RK and BOA understand only long filenames, not short versions,
and files get different short versions of names when extracted.
- in \mapping\ directory, files were not sorted by DIR/on command:
"Too many files, directory not sorted".


The LATEST RELEASE, and  fifteen 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.
