That's how all compressors work, in that likely files (eg. ASCII, obvious patterns, etc) become smaller and unlikely files become bigger.

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Dylan16807 7 months ago | parent | next [-]

> likely files (eg. ASCII, obvious patterns, etc) become smaller

Likely files for a real human workload are like that, but if "most inputs" is talking about the set of all possible files, then that's a whole different ball game and "most inputs" will compress very badly.

> unlikely files become bigger

Yes, but when compressors can't find useful patterns they generally only increase size by a small fraction of a percent. There aren't files that get significantly bigger.

	▲	7 months ago \| parent [-]
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PaulHoule 7 months ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In some cases it can be certain, the ascii encoded in the usual 8 bits has fat to trim even if it is random in that space.

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Retr0id 7 months ago | parent | prev [-]

Right, but the point was, the case where it became bigger was ~impossible to find.

	▲	spencerflem 7 months ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah good point, kinda glossed over that part of the original post. Don't think that that's possible fwiw. IMO. the fun part of compression algorithms is that the set of files that become smaller is as narrow as possible while the set of files that become bigger is as big as possible, so _most_ files don't compress well! The trick is to get the set of files that get smaller to be just the useful files and nothing else.