Content deleted Content added
examples |
|||
Line 7:
{{main|Data compression}}
[[Data compression]] can be seen as a special case of data differencing<ref>RFC 3284</ref><ref>{{Citation | first1=D.G. | last1=Korn | first2 = K.P. |last2=Vo |title=Vdelta: Differencing and Compression | series=Practical Reusable Unix Software | editor = B. Krishnamurthy | publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] | year = 1995}}</ref> – data differencing consists of producing a ''difference'' given a ''source'' and a ''target'', with patching producing a ''target'' given a ''source'' and a ''difference,'' while data compression consists of producing a compressed file given a target, and decompression consists of producing a target given only a compressed file. Thus, one can consider data compression as data differencing with empty source data, the compressed file corresponding to a "difference from nothing". This is the same as considering absolute [[entropy (information theory)|entropy]] (corresponding to data compression) as a special case of [[relative entropy]] (corresponding to data differencing) with no initial data.
A dictionary translating between the terminology of the two fields is given as:
{|
! compression !! differencing
|-
| ''none'' || source
|-
| uncompressed || target
|-
| compressed || difference
|-
| compression || differencing
|-
| decompression || patching
|}
== See also ==
| |||