[Zlib-devel] zlib and LZMA

[Mark Adler]

zlibbers,

I wanted to let you all know that I have been discussing adding LZMA  
to zlib and gzip with Igor Pavlov (author of 7-zip).  LZMA will  
provide a higher compression alternative to deflate, of course at the  
cost of more CPU and more memory.  I picked LZMA since it compresses  
better than most of the block-sort software I've seen, it provides  
relatively fast decompression, it is open source, and it appears to  
be patent free.

As for timeline, Igor is currently working on LZMA2, which should be  
complete in a few months.  That is the actual compression method that  
will be added to zlib and gzip.  In the meantime, I will be  
incorporating an LZMA decoder in our private beta versions of zlib to  
work out the interfaces with this group and test them with your help.

I also plan to add XML-WRT and executable filters as compression  
options in zlib and gzip.

Your help with testing and commentary will, as always, be greatly  
appreciated.  Also if there are any volunteers to help with the  
coding, that would be great too.

mark