The Data Compression Book

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 557 pages
• Published by: M&T Books; 2 Pap/Dsk edition April 1995
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1558514341
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1558514348
• Book Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 1.4 inches
• Weighs: 2 pounds

Book Description
Topics in this guide to data compression techniques include the Shannon-Fano and Huffman coding techniques, Lossy compression, the JPEG compression algorithm, and fractal compression. Readers also study adaptive Huffman coding, arithmetic coding, dictionary compression methods, and learn to write C programs for nearly any environment. The disk illustrates each learned technique and demonstrates how data compression works.

About The Author
Jean-Loup Gailly, a software consultant with more than 15 years of programming experience, wrote the compression code of the freeware zip archiver and is the author of the gzip data-compression program.;

C++ programming expert Mark Nelson is director of

software development for Greenleaf Software, Inc., and is contributing

editor and columnist for Windows/DOS Developer's Journal. Mark's

articles have been published in Dr. Dobb's Journal, C User's

Journal, and Windows Tech Journal, among other publications.

He has written best-selling books on data compression and serial

communications.

Reader Reviews
PROs: 1. It is one of very few books on data compression available on the market. 2. Description of the IDEAS of compression techniques is very well written. 3. The books comes with the C code for most algorithms. 4. Fairly wide scope of data compression techniques is presented. CONs: 1. Possibly for copyright reasons, the formats of commonly used file formats are not disclosed; the enclosed propgrams are generic compression algorithms, which do not create (or open) actual .ZIP, .ARC, or .JPG files, which can be opened by commercial programs. Therefore, this book will not help you to open standard compressed files from your home-made programs. 2. There is a missing link between the well described ideas (general principles) of the compression techniques, and their actual algorithms presented as C programs - namely, the algorithms are not described verbally. You have to analyze typically 6-page-long programs to understand how the actual encoding is done. 3. Although there is a section on sound compression, the MP3 standard is not explained. The same applies to MPEG. SUMMARY: Good to get a general idea how the data compression is performed. Helpful if you want to develop your own compressed data format. Of very limited help if you want to work with standard compressed files in your own program. Requires knowledge of C and some time to study the enclosed code. Comment | | (Report this)