[Flac] FLAC: compressing data

[Nicholas Wilson]

On Mon 3 Sep 4:04 pm Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves wrote:
> I think what you are looking for is 7z.  Its LZMA compression can
> compress files more than any other format.  Install 7-zip.

7-zip is good, but it cannot compress more than any other format: a general 
purpose algorithm like this is good for most things, but if you know 
something about the distribution of the input, you will probably achieve 
better results using a more specific algorithm (this is why things like flac 
exist).

A quick test of 7z on music gave 77% of the original size, and flac was 49%.  
This was a very bad study, but you get the idea.  An algorithm good at 
picking up repeated patterns does well on text, while ones like jpeg are 
based on wavelets, and flac is an advanced delta compression system.  All 
successful systems treat the input as more than just random data.

Nicholas