Spelling.
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$FreeBSD$
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From: James A. Woods <jaw@eos.arc.nasa.gov>
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>From vn Fri Dec 2 18:05:27 1988
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@ -71,48 +74,48 @@ as I recall.)
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into glass. although there are restrictions on patenting equations,
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the "embedded systems" seem to fly past the legal gauntlets.
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anyway, i'm still learning about intellectual property law after
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several conversations from a unisys (nee sperry) lawyer re 'compress'.
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anyway, I'm still learning about intellectual property law after
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several conversations from a Unisys (nee sperry) lawyer re 'compress'.
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it's more complicated than this, but they're letting (oral
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communication only) software versions of 'compress' slide
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as far as licensing fees go. this includes 'arc', 'stuffit',
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and other commercial wrappers for 'compress'. yet they are
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signing up licensees for hardware chips. hewlett-packard
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supposedly has an active vlsi project, and unisys has
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board-level lzw-based tape controllers. (to build lzw into
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signing up licensees for hardware chips. Hewlett-Packard
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supposedly has an active vlsi project, and Unisys has
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board-level LZW-based tape controllers. (to build LZW into
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a disk controller would be strange, as you'd have to build
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in a filesystem too!)
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it's byzantine
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that unisys is in a tiff with hp regarding the patents,
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that Unisys is in a tiff with HP regarding the patents,
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after discovering some sort of "compress" button on some
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hp terminal product. why? well, professor abraham lempel jumped
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HP terminal product. why? well, professor Abraham Lempel jumped
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from being department chairman of computer science at technion in
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israel to sperry (where he got the first patent), but then to work
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at hewlett-packard on sabbatical. the second welch patent
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Israel to sperry (where he got the first patent), but then to work
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at Hewlett-Packard on sabbatical. the second Welch patent
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is only weakly derivative of the first, so they want chip
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licenses and hp relented. however, everyone agrees something
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like the current unix implementation is the way to go with
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software, so hp (and ucb) long ago asked spencer thomas and i to sign
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licenses and HP relented. however, everyone agrees something
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like the current Unix implementation is the way to go with
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software, so HP (and UCB) long ago asked spencer Thomas and i to sign
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off on copyright permission (although they didn't need to, it being pd).
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lempel, hp, and unisys grumbles they can't make money off the
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Lempel, HP, and Unisys grumbles they can't make money off the
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software since a good free implementation (not the best --
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i have more ideas!) escaped via usenet. (lempel's own pascal
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i have more ideas!) escaped via Usenet. (Lempel's own pascal
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code was apparently horribly slow.)
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i don't follow the ibm 'arc' legal bickering; my impression
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i don't follow the IBM 'arc' legal bickering; my impression
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is that the pc folks are making money off the archiver/wrapper
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look/feel of the thing [if ms-dos can be said to have a look and feel].
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now where is telebit with the compress firmware? in a limbo
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netherworld, probably, with sperry still welcoming outfits
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to sign patent licenses, a common tactic to bring other small fry
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into the fold. the guy who crammed 12-bit compess into the modem
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into the fold. the guy who crammed 12-bit compress into the modem
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there left. also what is transpiring with 'compress' and sys 5 rel 4?
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beats me, but if sperry got a hold of them on these issues,
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at&t would likely re-implement another algorithm if they
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thought 'compress' infringes. needful to say, i don't think
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it does after the abovementioned legal conversation.
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it does after the above mentioned legal conversation.
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my own beliefs on whether algorithms should be patentable at all
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change with the weather. if the courts finally nail down
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patent protection for algorithms, academic publication in
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@ -120,9 +123,9 @@ as I recall.)
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where the textbook codes will simply be a big tease to get
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money into the patent holder coffers...
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oh, if you implement lzw from the patent, you won't get
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oh, if you implement LZW from the patent, you won't get
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good rates because it doesn't mention adaptive table reset,
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lack thereof being *the* serious deficiency of thomas' first version.
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lack thereof being *the* serious deficiency of Thomas' first version.
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now i know that patent law generally protects against independent
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re-invention (like the 'xor' hash function pleasantly mentioned
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@ -130,9 +133,9 @@ as I recall.)
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but the upshot is that if anyone ever wanted to sue us,
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we're partially covered with
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independently-developed twists, plus the fact that some of us work
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in a bureacratic morass (as contractor to a public agency in my case).
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in a bureaucratic morass (as contractor to a public agency in my case).
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quite a mess, huh? i've wanted to tell someone this stuff
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quite a mess, huh? I've wanted to tell someone this stuff
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for a long time, for posterity if nothing else.
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james
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@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
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@(#)README 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
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$FreeBSD$
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Compress version 4.0 improvements over 3.0:
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o compress() speedup (10-50%) by changing division hash to xor
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@ -21,13 +22,13 @@ Compress version 4.0 improvements over 3.0:
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The "usermem" script attempts to determine the maximum process size. Some
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editing of the script may be necessary (see the comments). [It should work
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fine on 4.3 bsd.] If you can't get it to work at all, just create file
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fine on 4.3 BSD.] If you can't get it to work at all, just create file
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"USERMEM" containing the maximum process size in decimal.
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The following preprocessor symbols control the compilation of "compress.c":
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o USERMEM Maximum process memory on the system
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o SACREDMEM Amount to reserve for other proceses
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o SACREDMEM Amount to reserve for other processes
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o SIGNED_COMPARE_SLOW Unsigned compare instructions are faster
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o NO_UCHAR Don't use "unsigned char" types
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o BITS Overrules default set by USERMEM-SACREDMEM
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@ -53,7 +54,7 @@ memory: at least BITS
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The default is BITS=16.
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The maximum bits can be overrulled by specifying "-DBITS=bits" at
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The maximum bits can be overruled by specifying "-DBITS=bits" at
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compilation time.
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WARNING: files compressed on a large machine with more bits than allowed by
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@ -172,8 +173,8 @@ Organization: CADLINC, Inc. @ Menlo Park, CA
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In the compress 3.0 source recently posted to mod.sources, there is a
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#define variable which can be set for optimum performance on a machine
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with a large amount of memory. A program (usermem) to calculate the
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useable amount of physical user memory is enclosed, as well as a sample
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4.2bsd Vax Makefile for compress.
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usable amount of physical user memory is enclosed, as well as a sample
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4.2BSD Vax Makefile for compress.
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Here is the README file from the previous version of compress (2.0):
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@ -189,7 +190,7 @@ Here is the README file from the previous version of compress (2.0):
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> compiler. The original posting has a bug which I fixed,
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> causing incompatible files. I recommend you NOT to use this
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> option unless you already have a lot of packed files from
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> the original posting by thomas.
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> the original posting by Thomas.
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>2. The exit status is not well defined (on some machines) causing the
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> scripts to fail.
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> The exit status is now 0,1 or 2 and is documented in
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@ -253,7 +254,7 @@ Here is the README file from the previous version of compress (2.0):
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>>>blinding speed and good compression ratios. It's certainly faster than
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>>>compact (but, then, what wouldn't be), but it's also the same speed as
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>>>pack, and gets better compression than both of them. On 350K bytes of
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>>>unix-wizards, compact took about 8 minutes of CPU, pack took about 80
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>>>Unix-wizards, compact took about 8 minutes of CPU, pack took about 80
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>>>seconds, and compress (herein) also took 80 seconds. But, compact and
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>>>pack got about 30% compression, whereas compress got over 50%. So, I
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>>>decided I had something, and that others might be interested, too.
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