That nasty slug is back

[Christian]

Hi all!

This slug has not much in common with the old one. It's a complete redesign. Only the name is the same because I was to lazy to think of another one.
That damn slug has become even slower (what do you expect, it's a slug) but does work more thoroughly. On my system its speed is comparable to "thor e3" - sometimes faster, sometimes slower. But its compression is better most of the time. The ratio is in-between e3 and e4.

Seriously, many things are lackluster. e.g. the IO-handling is stupid. Or the handling of already compressed data is naive. But the algorithmic concept is nice. Slug isn't LZ77 anymore - it borrows some aspects from ROLZ and adds some magic to it. It still uses semi-dynamic huffman as backend.
I think that I can extend the 'ROLZ' further to provide higher compression at a slight speed hit. But on the other hand, maybe the next version will already use another concept.

If you find any bugs/errors please let me know.
I'm looking forward to some numbers from the benchmarkers. Besides, I tried adding slug to 'metacompressor.com'. Does anybody know what todo with the field 'code'?

Slug 1.2

[encode]

From:
http://encode.ru/forums/index.php?action=vthread&forum=1&topic=677

code is LongNightsDebugging

[Bulat Ziganshin]

i will prefer if slug had various compression modes - old one, new one

[SvenBent]

Slug... is it faster/slower than RZM and CCMx ?

[Nania Francesco]

MOC Test
178.337.382 B
COMP =10,044 DEC=10,965 EFF.=130,54 (Number.1)

[Christian]

code is LongNightsDebugging

Thanks Ilia. It worked like a charm. And I already thought that my browser might be incompatible or something.

i will prefer if slug had various compression modes - old one, new one

I just named it Slug because I couldnt come up with a decent name. Aside from the name, Slug 1.1x and 1.2 have nothing in common - the huffman coder was redesigned, too. It would be like combining RZM and CCM.

Slug... is it faster/slower than RZM and CCMx ?

Much faster, but compression is much worse, too.

MOC Test
178.337.382 B
COMP =10,044 DEC=10,965 EFF.=130,54 (Number.1)

Thanks for the ultra fast update, Francesco!! The result is really nice.

[Fallon]

Its a complete redesign. Only the name is the same because I was to lazy

laziest googlesearch: synonyms online
http://synonyms.memodata.com/
http://www.synonym.com/
search: slug or another name
fling, hit, bullet,
search: fling
fling (n.)
1.the act of flinging
2.a brief indulgence of your impulses
3.a usually brief attempt"he took a crack at it" "I gave it a whirl"
fling (v.)
1.throw with force or recklessness"fling the frisbee"

[LovePimple]

Thanks Chris!

Mirror: Download

[Christian]

Thanks for the mirror, Lovepimple!

Here is a new version. I only extended the symbol-coder. This should impove ratio a bit in most cases. Speed should be about the same. Additionally, as a compensation for the missing readme I added some contact info to Slug.

Slug 1.21

About the name again. I just called this one slug, because I thought one stupid compressor name is enough. Additionally, it fits in the same niche - light and fast compression.

[Intrinsic]

A Slug is also slow, slimey, eats your plants/vegetables and you can kill it by putting salt on it

[Christian]

The ambiguousness of Slug was the reason why I chose it in the first place.

[LovePimple]

Thanks Chris!

Mirror: Download

[LovePimple]

Quick test...

SLUG v1.21

A10.jpg > 843,835
AcroRd32.exe > 1,904,663
english.dic > 1,081,834
FlashMX.pdf > 3,889,783
FP.LOG > 1,101,238
MSO97.DLL > 2,317,140
ohs.doc > 907,716
rafale.bmp > 1,294,689
vcfiu.hlp > 836,592
world95.txt > 814,442

Total = 14,991,932 bytes


THOR 0.96a e3

A10.jpg > 842,840
AcroRd32.exe > 1,942,444
english.dic > 986,092
FlashMX.pdf > 3,890,204
FP.LOG > 1,221,332
MSO97.DLL > 2,385,868
ohs.doc > 935,456
rafale.bmp > 1,510,988
vcfiu.hlp > 969,760
world95.txt > 1,123,920

Total = 15,808,904 bytes


THOR 0.96a e4

A10.jpg > 841,780
AcroRd32.exe > 1,830,220
english.dic > 969,772
FlashMX.pdf > 3,826,376
FP.LOG > 935,016
MSO97.DLL > 2,241,704
ohs.doc > 879,948
rafale.bmp > 1,281,236
vcfiu.hlp > 773,044
world95.txt > 851,256

Total = 14,430,352 bytes

[LovePimple]

Another quick test...

Test file: ENWIK8

Test machine: AMD Sempron 2400+, Windows XP SP2

SLUG v1.21
Compressed Size: 35,357,328 bytes
Elapsed Time: 7.059 Seconds


THOR v0.96a e3
Compressed Size: 41,531,628 bytes
Elapsed Time: 5.031 Seconds


THOR v0.96a e4
Compressed Size: 35,795,184 bytes
Elapsed Time: 14.203 Seconds

[Stephan Busch]

The decision of what name a compressor gets is only up to the author. Thor reminds me of the celtic god of thunder, Tornado is both an ugly storm and a war machine, rings is what most people wear on their fingers..

Actually I find those names much more innovative than straight technical ones such as PPMd.

Also, processor and platform names like the upcoming Intel Nehalem with QuickPath sound mystical..

[Bulat Ziganshin]

... and 4x4 reminds about hard-core vehicle - slow, heavy, but highly reliable (that's so far from my program )

thanks, Stephan, this sounds so incredible!

[Christian]

Thanks for the update Stephan!

Actually I find those names much more innovative than straight technical ones such as PPMd.

I agree. Still, imo long names like crazyBigElephant shouldnt be used neither.


Slug 1.23

Changelog:
I fixed a feature of the huffman coder. Resampling of the alphabet was done at a bad time (which degraded compression slightly). Speed should be identical.

[Bulat Ziganshin]

Still, imo long names like crazyBigElephant shouldnt be used neither.

once i had in program DancingElephant class it was about making multithreading in DOS environment which explains its name

[Christian]

it was about making multithreading in DOS environment which explains its name

DancingOneLeggedLeftFootedWalrus would have been quite accurate, too.

[LovePimple]

Slug 1.23

Changelog:
I fixed a feature of the huffman coder. Resampling of the alphabet was done at a bad time (which degraded compression slightly). Speed should be identical.

Awesome!

Mirror: Download

[Bulat Ziganshin]

rings is what most people wear on their fingers..

and Nania is our Lord Of Rings

[Christian]

EDIT: removed version. After some more testing it seems that the context change produced more cache misses. So, it wasn't worth it.

Removed 1.24

[Black_Fox]

Thanks Christian, I'll try to look at it before the end of the week

[Christian]

And here comes Slug 1.24 - some internal changes. Ratio is about the same. Actually, compression of all my testsets (~3G) takes ~11M less space. But the speed is a little bit faster than 1.23 again - at least if I look at my results and those at metacompressor. I'm sorry for flooding the charts there. And I'm sorry for the awful web hoster - at least there are no cats.

Download Slug 1.24

[encode]

at least there are no cats

I like cats!

[LovePimple]

Thanks Chris!

Mirror: Download

[Black_Fox]

at least there are no cats

Thanks for the new version. Well, USA and such are cool, but there are 200 slots for whole Czech republic Ill stick to LovePimples site, I guess, since I currently dont know about any filehost, that works everywhere fast, without limits and without blurred cats
EDIT: Found a way, there are Firefox extensions to circumvent this

[Christian]

I finally created a tiny homepage to put an end to this web hosting nuisance with all their ads and cats and stuff. Sorry again, I did not know that megaupload is working that bad in eastern countries.

Slug's Homepage

[nimdamsk]

You'd better close <H2> tag in "i_navi.htm" if it's possible, otherwise Opera becomes insane

[encode]

Christian
By the way, can you briefly explain what means "distant variation of a ROLZ compression engine". Is it pure ROLZ or it's an LZ77 with some tricks? If it's about special tricks can you post some hints?