Re: Git and OpenDocument (OpenOffice.org) files

David Kastrup [off-list ref] writes:

Johannes Schindelin [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

On Mon, 27 Aug 2007, Mike Hommey wrote:

quoted

BTW, wouldn't it be more efficient to store the odf files unzipped ?

Efficient how?  Speed-wise: no.  Space-wise: yes.

Huh?  At least the "Space-wise: yes" seems rather nonsensical.

I don't know enough about git delta-compression and OpenDocument, but
git has better chance to efficiently delta-compress different versions
of the document if they're not compressed themselves.

(but that's a necessary and not sufficient condition. line-based
delta-compression wouldn't work if the file is a one-line XML file for
example).

"Speed-wise" is not as clear: it depends on the relation between
memory/disk bandwidth and decompression speed.

Probably network operations would be faster, and checkout would be
slower. I wouldn't bet ;-).

-- 
Matthieu

Hi,

On Mon, 27 Aug 2007, Matthieu Moy wrote:

David Kastrup [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

Johannes Schindelin [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

On Mon, 27 Aug 2007, Mike Hommey wrote:

quoted

BTW, wouldn't it be more efficient to store the odf files unzipped ?

Efficient how?  Speed-wise: no.  Space-wise: yes.

Huh?  At least the "Space-wise: yes" seems rather nonsensical.

I don't know enough about git delta-compression and OpenDocument, but 
git has better chance to efficiently delta-compress different versions 
of the document if they're not compressed themselves.

A standalone zip archive (which is what an .odt file is, with a defined 
file structure) cannot be as efficient in compressing text, especially if 
it is versioned text with relatively few differences between versions, as 
delta compression.

So yes, you guessed the explanation (which I omitted) correctly.

As for the speed wise: I doubt that unpacking and then repacking can be 
more efficient than not doing it -- even if the files are transmitted via 
network.  (Remember: blobs are stored compressed, be they in a pack, or 
loose.)

Ciao,
Dscho