BitCondenser !!!

[cparker]

I just submitted a project application to SourceForge for BitCondenserI'm including the project description below. I'm doing this now because I'm going to be releasing BitCondenser with the GNU GPL for a license, so it's not like I consider this "intellectual property" or anything like that. The idea of "IP" to me is a bogus one

Comments

[cparker]

Note To Self: Perhaps splitting up the file into "groupings" that would fit into memory and then condensing those "groupings" could work, and the end result would still be significantly smaller than the original... That's definitely something to think about...

[cparker]

$comment =~ s/groupings/tokens/i;

[teraspawn]

now THIS looks interesting

Don't get me wrong, my knowledge of programming would fill this space -> | | , but I think I get what you're on about. And it's ridiculously cool.

What kind of implications would this thingie have for file-transferring etcetera?

[cparker]

Well, if I'll be able to pull it off, then a person SHOULD be able to fit their entire music collection on a floppy disk. That's what I'm shooting for.

But imagine what this would also do for archiving. Redundant backups? You could have as many as you could dream of without the need for massive storage units. I haven't done the math in my head, so I don't know for sure. Maybe that'll be my absolute first step is to fully document a couple of approaches to this and then determine what the final results would be. Defining a solid algorithm should definitely be the first step when attempting to solve any problem.

This isn't going to be easy, though. Not by a long shot. Which is one other reason why I'm making it a Free/Open Source Software project. That way, development wouldn't necessarily be limited to how much free time I have or how much experience I have with XYZ. I'd like to see this come into fruition not for myself, you know? I'd like to see this happen for everyone, which is why I think everyone should have an opportunity to

It won't work

[anonymous]

Your idea won't work. Read up on the "Pigeonhole principle".

Re: It won't work

[cparker]

I am familiar with it, but I'm failing to see how it relates to BC.

Re: It won't work

[anonymous]

You're right, it doesn't completely relate. (I was more refering to your implication that you had come up with a wonderfully unique algorithm that could compress any data onto just a floppy.)

Instead, I should have asked this: how common do you expect to find files that can be more efficiently expressed as an equation like "2^64-1" rather than as a gzipped or bzip2ed stream? Do you have any (even simple) real world examples of a file that benefits from your compression scheme?