LZMA challenge: "Today Steven committed the LZMA port and unlike bzip2 the algorithm doesn't seem to be patented. I have to admit that I was very impressed with the performance of the compressor after Todd showed me his results. The only downside seems to be the time it takes to compress something. Decompression speed is about the same as gzip or bzip2.
The issues at hand here are that this code is GPLd and is written in C++ for added obfuscation. What would make this algorithm very useful is if someone could write an actual free BSD licensed version with the exact same API as libz. In other words create a drop-in replacement for libz.
If you intend to take on this challenge, here are some guidelines:
* BSD licensed
* written per style(9)
* Written in C
* Should have a full regression test
* It should follow the OpenBSD coding and design practices
Happy coding!
Update: I should have done some more research. I was incorrect about bzip2 being patented. I searched the patent offices and only found references to it as being public domain. My bad, sorry for the confusion. Thanks to tedu to bring this to my attention."
(Via OpenBSD Journal.)
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