Re: Mersenne: Compressing Prime95
On 26 Nov 00, at 15:06, Stephan T. Lavavej wrote: Saving space is always a good idea. This compression is actually better than ZIP compression, so when the distribution zipfile includes the smaller executable, it too becomes smaller: from 405953 bytes to 299756 bytes. This makes the download go quicker for everyone, which especially matters to modem users, but is nice even for people with fast connections. Awesome. True, but... a) I prefer to download files in a form which can be unpacked by "standard" software - which includes zip - rather than relying on inbuilt executable code. This is more secure, and makes the download process less platform dependent. b) I download several megabytes across a modem line every week. The suggestion would save about 20 seconds each time I download Prime95. Say once every six months. I think the benefits of staying with the current method exceed the benefits of switching to a slightly more effective compression method. Regards Brian Beesley _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.exu.ilstu.edu/mersenne/faq-mers.txt
Re: Mersenne: Compressing Prime95
True, but... a) I prefer to download files in a form which can be unpacked by "standard" software - which includes zip - rather than relying on inbuilt executable code. This is more secure, and makes the download process less platform dependent. Well, any platform that can run Prime95's code (Win32/PE) will run a packed Prime95, so I don't see platform dependence issues here. The compression is completely transparent, and I don't understand your objection. The executable itself is still standalone, and for distribution must be ZIPped up with the other ancilliary files. Stephan T. Lavavej _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.exu.ilstu.edu/mersenne/faq-mers.txt
Re: Mersenne: Compressing Prime95
This 'Wonderful' compression technology maybe "Awesome"; however, MY main objection or perhaps philosophy towards all of this is that Prime95 is not a large piece of code. It takes a relatively small amount of time to download over a modem compared to other software items that we modem users may download in a weeks period. Maybe if Prime95 was ..say .. a 20MB download. Then perhaps shaking things up to save some download time would be a good idea, but as things stand now we are only talking about saving 20 or so seconds. Perhaps that is the reason people may find it 'objectionable'.. Maybe its just not worth the hassle at the moment for this particular application - Jeramy A. Ross Well, any platform that can run Prime95's code (Win32/PE) will run a packed Prime95, so I don't see platform dependence issues here. The compression is completely transparent, and I don't understand your objection. The executable itself is still standalone, and for distribution must be ZIPped up with the other ancilliary files. Stephan T. Lavavej _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.exu.ilstu.edu/mersenne/faq-mers.txt _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.exu.ilstu.edu/mersenne/faq-mers.txt
Re: Mersenne: Compressing Prime95
Jeramy Ross wrote: This 'Wonderful' compression technology maybe "Awesome"; however, MY main objection or perhaps philosophy towards all of this is that Prime95 is not a large piece of code. It takes a relatively small amount of time to download over a modem compared to other software items that we modem users may download in a weeks period. Maybe if Prime95 was ..say .. a 20MB download. Then perhaps shaking things up to save some download time would be a good idea, but as things stand now we are only talking about saving 20 or so seconds. Perhaps that is the reason people may find it 'objectionable'.. Maybe its just not worth the hassle at the moment for this particular application I'd tend to agree, as someone who uses a modem at home. If we were talking about something like the Sun JDK, sure, better compression might be in order. But in the case of a 1-meg program, it isn't. At school, of course, I have no real concerns - I've downloaded a CD image in twenty minutes! Nathan P.S. The website for the compression program never resolved for me; I'd like to take a look at it, if someone would send me the IP. _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.exu.ilstu.edu/mersenne/faq-mers.txt
Mersenne: Compressing Prime95
I discovered something interesting. The most recent Prime95 executable is very large, 1212928 bytes long. However, if I use UPX (Ultimate Packer for eXecutables, upx.tsx.org) with the --best option, I can compress Prime95 down to 238542 bytes! That's about 20% of its original size. The compression process, happily, is invisible to the end user, and incurs no time or memory cost; the compressed Prime95 behaves just as the original did. Saving space is always a good idea. This compression is actually better than ZIP compression, so when the distribution zipfile includes the smaller executable, it too becomes smaller: from 405953 bytes to 299756 bytes. This makes the download go quicker for everyone, which especially matters to modem users, but is nice even for people with fast connections. Awesome. Stephan T. Lavavej _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.exu.ilstu.edu/mersenne/faq-mers.txt
