🚀 go-pugleaf

spierings (omg...@internex.net.au) wrote:
: If you post further replies to this message please note that:

: comp.sys.mac.games.misc
: comp.sys.mac.games.strategic
: comp.sys.mac.programmer.games

: Are *Macintosh Groups* and are not interested in this off-topic thread.

<sarcasm>
Ah, you don't see the big picture.  You see, my modem (USR Courier) contains
a 20 MHz 80186 inside of it.  Now imagine: what if I upgraded my modem's
CPU to a 600 MHz Pentium IV?  V.42bis compression uses a LZ77 variant of
some type, doesn't it?  LZ77 compression algorithms have to do string searches
against the previous block of data.  Numerous methods for speeding that
search up have been implemented, but in general, the computer isn't always
guaranteed to get the best possible match.  You know how programs like PKZIP
for DOS have stuff like the -ef option for fast compression vs. -ex for
maximum compression?   The more time you spend searching for matches, the
better your compression.  Well, if my modem had a 600 MHz Pentium IV in it
instead of a 20 MHz 80186, it could make my V.42bis compress perhaps 1%
better.

Thereby giving me an extra .01% edge in networked Myth2 games.  I play Myth2
on a Mac.  Ta da!  I just made the post become on-topic!  :) :) :) :) :) :)
</sarcasm>

(Now watch, someone will step in and tell me that V.42bis uses LZW, which
while it's a LZ77 variant kinda, doesn't really spend a lot of time
searching for string matches.)

   Yog-Sothoth Neblod Zin,
      John Millington