Subj : Re: Storing 20 million randomly accessible documents in compressed form
To   : comp.programming
From : DarkD
Date : Wed Sep 07 2005 04:50 pm


"Gene" <gene.ressler@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1125946156.818588.253910@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> If you can use a standard database product (like Adaptive Server
> Anywhere) that allows compressed databases, this problem disappears.
>
> If you can't, then your approach is reasonable (as is Jongware's).  Not
> sure that with 200,000 zip files you will get 1.7GB on a CD, though.
> You'll need a compression ratio of well over 2 to 1.  A single zip file
> gets about 1.8 to 1 for average text.  Have you done any tests to see
> what kinds of results zip is getting on your data?

1.8 to 1? I think you are thinking of the ratio for random ASCII display
characters. Typical compressed books etc. have a huge ratio of about 30:1

.