Re: [NTLK] [ANN] ZLib for NewtonOS 1.0

From: R Pickett (emerson_at_hayseed.net)
Date: Mon Nov 05 2001 - 16:43:35 EST


On Mon, 2001-11-05 at 08:51, Steve Weyer wrote:
> is communicating via a compressed http: stream (based on Zlib) a feature of
> some servers and clients ??

Yes. That is, more specifically, the Accept-Encoding HTTP request
header has valid values that include 'compress' and 'gzip' which allow
for compressing the data part of the request. It's a standard part of
HTTP 1.1, and every major browser of the past 2-3 years supports it.
Servers are being a little slower to support it, but IIS does as of
<some-recent-version>, and there's a free Apache module that many many
people are using that supports it.

Compressing text/* mimetypes can result in ~2x speed increase, altho
since web graphics are already compressed, sending them this way can
result in a tiny bit of a speed loss. Smart servers are supposed to
know about this and not agree to send GIF/JPG/etc compressed, so
basically making the compress request in general is a good idea,
especially over modem-speed links. This could make the Newt browsing
experience noticably faster now that the standard zlib stuff is easily
available.

The best bundle of documentation I've found on this is at remote
communication's site; they distribute the really nice apache module for
doing this: <http://www.remotecommunications.com/apache/mod_gzip/>

-- 
R Pickett           The people that once bestowed commands, consulships,
Hayseed Networks    legions, and all else, now meddles no more and longs
emerson_at_hayseed.net eagerly for just two things  --  bread and circuses.

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