TiP - Tiny Packer for small buffers

+ Compress small buffers fast and efficient with Zeroes Elemination. +
-->  Works with big buffers too but will not compress like established zip tools ❗

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Table of Contents

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• 1. Project Status
• 2. About The Project
  • 2.1. TiP Components
• 3. Getting Started
  • 3.1. Prerequisites
  • 3.2. Built TipTable Generator tipTable
  • 3.3. Build tip and tiu
  • 3.4. Try tip and tiu
  • 3.5. Installation
• 4. Usage
• 5. Roadmap
• 6. Contributing
  • 6.1. Top contributors
• 7. License
• 8. Contact
• 9. Acknowledgments

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1. Project Status

--> Early experimental state!

• Pack & Unpack works in a first implementation
• idTable.c generation also ok, but the generated table might not be optimal.

2. About The Project

• Usual compressors cannot succeed on small data, because they add a translation table into the data.
• TiP is an adaptable small buffer packer suitable for embedded devices. Like COBS it removes all zeroes from the data, but additionally tries data compression.
  • COBS adds 1 byte overhead per each starting 255 bytes.
  • The TiP worst-case overhead is 1 byte per each starting 7 bytes for uncompressable data.
• Like TCOBS, TiP can already compress 3 bytes into 2 bytes but is expected to do better in a general way.

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2.1. TiP Components

• PC apps:
  • tig - tiny generator to create a suitable idTable.c file
  • tip - tiny pack using the pack C code mainly for tests
  • tiu - tiny unpack using the unpack C code mainly for tests
• Tiny C-Code usable on embedded devices inside src folder containing
  • idTable.c - a generated data specific translation table
  • pack.c and unpack.c - separately or together compilable

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3. Getting Started

3.1. Prerequisites

• For now install Go to easily build the executables.
• You need some files containing typical data you want to pack and unpack.
  • Just to try out TiP, you can use a folder containing ASCII texts.

3.2. Built TipTable Generator tig

• cd tig && go build -ldflags "-w" ./...
• Run tig on the data files to get an idTable.c file.

3.3. Build tip and tiu

• Copy the generated idTable.c file into the src folder.
• Run go build ./... or go install ./....

3.4. Try tip and tiu

• Run tip -i myFile -v to get myFile.tip.
• Run tiu -i myFile.tip -v to get myFile.tip.untip.
• myFile and myFile.tip.untip are expected to be equal.

3.5. Installation

• Add src folder to your project and compile.
• pack.h and unpack.h is the user interface.

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4. Usage

Please refer to the Tip User Manual (not written yet)

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5. Roadmap

• Create tipTable.h Generator tipTable.
• Create pack.c and unpack.c and test.
• Improve tipTable.h Generator tipTable.
• Write Tip User Manual.
• Write fuzzy tests.
• Remove 255 bytes limitation.
• Improve implementation for less RAM usage.

See the open issues for a full list of proposed features (and known issues).

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6. Contributing

Contributions are what make the open source community such an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

If you have a suggestion that would make this better, please fork the repo and create a pull request. You can also simply open an issue with the tag "enhancement". Don't forget to give the project a star! Thanks again!

1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

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6.1. Top contributors

7. License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.txt for more information.

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8. Contact

Thomas Höhenleitner - [email protected]

Project Link: https://github.com/rokath/tip

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9. Acknowledgments

• COBS
• to do
• todo
• to do

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