Re: [Lzip-bug] lzlib: Question/Remarks about some API Signatures

[Antonio Diaz Diaz]

John Reiser wrote:
> > A signed value is consistent with the rest of the library functions. All
> > of them return -1 on error.
>
> I often desire more precise information about what was wrong.  I prefer
> an error code which gives a good clue about how to fix the problem.

From lzlib.info (Error Codes):
"Most library functions return -1 to indicate that they have failed. But
this return value only tells you that an error has occurred. To find out
what kind of error it was, you need to verify the error code by calling
`LZ_(de)compress_errno'."


> > Lzlib compresses on read, so you can write a lot of data and
> > LZ_compress_data_position will still return 0.
>
> It seems to me that compressing only on demand (that is, only upon
> executing a 'read' operation on the compressed stream) is a policy
> decision.  This policy has some advantages, including postponing work
> which might be avoidable.  But it has some disadvantages, including
> long latency at the first read.  I favor the option to choose the policy,
> all the way from "as late as possible" to "as soon as possible".
> In the particular case of lzlib, it seems to me that a good intermediate
> policy would be to limit not-yet-compressed data to at most the size
> of the dictionary (or the look-back window), or perhaps twice that much.

Then you will like to know that 1) you can choose the policy by issuing 
zero-sized read commands, and 2) lzlib already limits not-yet-compressed 
data to at most twice the size of the dictionary. (See "Buffering" in 
lzlib.info).


Regards,
Antonio.