

Ask HN: What justify this 149bytes difference? [text editor related] - aolczak

http://cl.ly/3P302w3e3A2p3D261U0H/o<p>Assuming:
- a single char takes 1 byte.
- a linked list takes about 5 bytes/char.
- a double linked list takes about 9 bytes/char.<p>1. Why is "Plain Text" format so low on memory. Is it using an array as storage?<p>2. Why is "Rich Format" so heavy?<p>Insight, details answers, and links welcome.
======
read_wharf
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Text_Format#Code_example>

From their example:

    
    
        $ echo "{\rtf1\ansi{\fonttbl\f0\fswiss Helvetica;}\f0\pard
        This is some {\b bold} text.\par
        }" |wc -c
        86
        
        $ echo "This is some bold text." |wc -c
        24
    

Also see cd34's comment.

If you're going to add information, that has to be a higher byte count.

~~~
aolczak
forgot the default font, size, alignment and so on, on rtf.

thanks for pointing that out.

------
cd34
Move the file to a linux/bsd machine and do:

    
    
      hexdump -C plaintextfilename
      hexdump -C richtextfilename

~~~
aolczak
thanks for this Canonical hex+ASCII display tip.

can't try atm, but will as soon as I can log to linux.

