
When to use dictionary compression (2018) - luu
https://fastcompression.blogspot.com/2018/02/when-to-use-dictionary-compression.html
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ignoramous
Cloudflare and Akamai proposed optional dictionary-compression for HTTP [0]
that could help smaller files achieve better compression ratios than
gzip/deflate [1].

Given the fact that zipf distribution holds true for natural languages [2],
dictionaries can be a simpler solution to text compression in low-power /
compute environments?

[0] [https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-vkrasnov-h2-compression-
dict...](https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-vkrasnov-h2-compression-
dictionaries-03.html)

[1] [https://blog.cloudflare.com/improving-compression-with-
prese...](https://blog.cloudflare.com/improving-compression-with-preset-
deflate-dictionary/)

[2] [https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/fCn8zs912OE](https://www.youtube-
nocookie.com/embed/fCn8zs912OE)

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whoisburbansky
I'm able to follow the article right up to the point where the author talks
about replacing streaming with dictionary compression. How does this work,
exactly? Don't you still need the same number of back and forth messages,
since the protocol doesn't change?

~~~
wmf
Yes, the number of messages is the same. For small messages, per-message
overhead may swamp the benefit of compression.

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dang
Discussed at the time:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16398752](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16398752)

