Mail Archives: opendos/2000/11/14/00:57:46
Hi Glenn! :-)
The problem with computers is that they are stupid. So, when you
ask a computer to look for "LZW", that's exactly what it does ... ;-)
However, if a human were to read "appnote.txt" (I presume the
URL you quoted is just a HTML version of the same text), they
would instantly recognize that LZW was an abbreviation for
"Lempel", "Ziv" and "Welch", which is how LZW is refered
to in the body of the text, in regard to the "shrink" compression
method ...
Joe.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Glenn McCorkle [SMTP:glennmcc AT cisnet DOT com]
> Sent: Tuesday, 14 November 2000 11:52
> To: opendos AT delorie DOT com
> Subject: Re: LZW (was PKZIP 2.50 for DOS)
>
> Joe,
> Sorry to disagree with you but.....
>
[da Silva, Joe]
That's OK. ;-)
> I have just now returned from http://www.pkware.com/ where I used thier
> search engine to look for anything on the site which might contain the
> letters "LZW"
> This is the only document it found.
>
> Search Results
> Keywords (any terms, case insensitive): lzw
> (189 files searched; 1 match found)
> Matches 1 - 1
>
> http://www.pkware.com/appnote.html
>
> And in that document (82 kb in size), you will only find "LZW"
> at the very bottom where it mentions a reffernce book which was used to
> collect information for the "Appnote".
>
> Nelson, Mark, "LZW Data Compression", Dr. Dobbs Journal, Volume 14, Number
> 10, October 1989, pages 29-37.
>
> A search for "unisys" found nothing at-all.
>
> Search Results
> Keywords (any terms, case insensitive): unisys
> (189 files searched; 0 matches found)
> No documents match your search criteria!
> You might want to revise them and try again.
>
> On Mon, 13 Nov 2000 12:26:03 +1100, Da Silva, Joe wrote:
>
> > Hmmm ...
>
> > I'm no expert on this, so perhaps some subtlety has "escaped me".
> > However, as far as I can determine, the PKZIP compression method
> > #1 (shrinking), uses LZW (presumably with the consent of Unisys) ...
>
> > Regarding LZW, I wonder when this infamous patent will expire???
>
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