compressed format documentation

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Snappy does not come with a description of the bitstream, neither in English 
nor in C. The decompression code is obfuscated by optimizations. It is useful 
when working with a file format to have a clear description of its workings, 
and (unoptimized) C is usually more unambiguous than English.

While working on the Linux Kernel port, I wrote both:
https://github.com/zeevt/csnappy/blob/master/csnappy_simple.c

Please include something like that (or better!) with the official distribution. 
If you want copyright assignment I can do that too.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by zeev.tar...@gmail.com on 12 Apr 2011 at 11:07

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Original comment by se...@google.com on 13 Apr 2011 at 8:17

• Added labels: Type-Enhancement
• Removed labels: Type-Defect

[GoogleCodeExporter]

can you send the "csnappy_simple.c" to clm971910@gmail.com ???,  because i can 
not open the link . thanks a lot 

Original comment by clm971...@gmail.com on 11 May 2011 at 5:50

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Zeev, could you fill out the contributor's license agreement form on 
http://code.google.com/legal/individual-cla-v1.0.html ? I've written down 
something, and although it's pretty different from your text, it is 
nevertheless based on it, so it's the easiest route.

Original comment by se...@google.com on 13 May 2011 at 12:20

• Changed state: Started

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Done. You could also take a look at RFC 1951 (DEFLATE) - much better written 
(and more widely read) description of LZ-based compression for an example of a 
spec of a much more complicated format that can nevertheless be implemented by 
novices.

Original comment by zeev.tar...@gmail.com on 13 May 2011 at 12:43

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Fixed in r36. Thanks!

Original comment by se...@google.com on 16 May 2011 at 9:29

• Changed state: Fixed