Re: Re: [SQL] Re: [GENERAL] lztext and compression ratios...

Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
Cc: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>, Jan Wieck <JanWieck@Yahoo.com>, PostgreSQL HACKERS <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Date: 2000-07-07T16:52:29Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
>> Unless the differential is huge we might want to just skip the
>> patent worries.

> If we found later that there was a patent problem, could we just issue a
> new release with a new compression algorithm?

Yeah, we could, and it could presumably even be a fully compatible
dot-release with no change to the on-disk representation.  That
representation and consequently the decompression algorithm are safe
enough, it's the details of the compressor's search for matching
patterns that are a patent minefield.

However, changing the code after-the-fact might not be enough to keep us
from being sued :-(.  I'd rather use something that's pretty well
established as being in the clear...

			regards, tom lane