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COMPATIBILITY

Almost without exception, the output of any new compression algorithm will
be incompatible with that of existing algorithms.  In some cases it is
possible to retain output compatibility by simply using a faster search
algorithm or more intelligent parser while retaining the older output
format, but the savings from doing so are generally very slight (less than
a percent).  In other words, it is not possible to improve the LZH (-lh1-)
and LHA (-lh5-) algorithms to anywhere near the degree of compression
provided by LZX - in this respect, compatibility cannot be preserved.

To truly advance the state of the art, a new, incompatible compression
format must be used.  LZX advances the state of the art by providing a
combination of degree of compression and speed not seen on either the
Amiga or MS-DOS platforms.

Rather than let LZX languish as an Amiga-only niche product, it is our
intent to push LZX to be the new cross-platform compression standard by
providing both a PC version and a UNIX version.  (It should be possible
for a third party to port the UNIX version to the Macintosh platform,
since neither Tomi nor Jonathan has Macintosh programming experience).


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