HEADS UP: bzip2(1) compression for manpages, Groff and Texinfo docs

[Brad Knowles]

At 7:29 PM +0200 2003/05/02, Matthias Buelow wrote:

>  I have to admit, to many users these days the concept of having memory
>  sizes of only 8 megabytes in some environments may seem totally alien
>  but think of embedded devices or some old machine as small router.)

	You don't have man pages on an embedded device like this. 
Without man pages, you don't need to worry about the compression 
algorithm used.

	If there were man pages on an embedded device like this, it might 
be on a machine using non-rotating media (such as a Soekris 4501 with 
CompactFlash storage), and in that case it might be very critical to 
squeeze the last ounce of disk space out of the system.


	IMO, this is not a clear-cut situation.

	I believe that multiple compression algorithms should be 
available and supported (including compress, bzip2, and even gzip 
although there may be licensing issues with it), with a reasonable 
default chosen (perhaps compress) that can be easily changed.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles at skynet.be>

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
     -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.

GCS/IT d+(-) s:+(++)>: a C++(+++)$ UMBSHI++++$ P+>++ L+ !E-(---) W+++(--) N+
!w--- O- M++ V PS++(+++) PE- Y+(++) PGP>+++ t+(+++) 5++(+++) X++(+++) R+(+++)
tv+(+++) b+(++++) DI+(++++) D+(++) G+(++++) e++>++++ h--- r---(+++)* z(+++)