[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] Qs about Squish device driver w/ Ram Disk

oury@techbook.com (David Oury) (11/10/90)

Greetings,
  Recently i heard of a device driver called `Squish' which 
 compressed/decompressed data to/from the disk drives so that
 one obtained twice the usable space.  Does anyone have experience
 with this or similiar creatures?  I am assuming that this would
 also apply to the ram disk, effectively doubling it also.
 Any ideas or feedback would be much appreciated.
 AdvThanksance  David Oury

-- 
oury@techbook.COM  ...!{tektronix!nosun,uunet}techbook!oury
Public Access UNIX at (503) 644-8135 (1200/2400) Voice: +1 503 646-8257
Public Access User --- Not affiliated with TECHbooks
Disclaimer: Just me talking, noone else.

roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) (11/12/90)

oury@techbook.com (David Oury) writes:

>   Recently i heard of a device driver called `Squish' which 
>  compressed/decompressed data to/from the disk drives so that
>  one obtained twice the usable space.  Does anyone have experience
>  with this or similiar creatures?

I think the 'twice the available space' claim is a best-case situation.
Any compression algorithm is going to do well on some data and poorly on
others. In the case, say, of a compressed file (such as a ZIPfile or an
.exe that has been LZEXE'd), the device driver may not be able to
compress the data at all. In fact, it may _expand_ the data in the
attempt. There will also be a time penalty paid for a software approach,
as well as a memory penalty. Most of the powerful compression techniques
need a hefty chunk of memory in which to work.

--
Roy M. Silvernail |+|  roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu  |+| #define opinions ALL_MINE;
main(){float x=1;x=x/50;printf("It's only $%.2f, but it's my $%.2f!\n",x,x);}
"This is cyberspace." -- Peter da Silva  :--:  "...and I like it here!" -- me