Explanation
Compressed file formats often feature both compression (storing the data in a small space) and archiving (storing multiple files and metadata in a single file). One can combine these in two natural ways:
- compress the individual files, and then archive into a single file;
- archive into a single data block, and then compress.
The order matters (these operations do not commute), and this latter is solid compression.
In Unix, compression and archiving are traditionally separate operations, which allows one to understand this distinction:
- compressing individual files and then archiving would be a
tarofgzip'ed files – this is very uncommon, while - archiving via
tarand then compressing yields a compressed archive: a.tar.gz– and this is solid compression.
Read more about this topic: Solid Compression
Famous quotes containing the word explanation:
“What causes adolescents to rebel is not the assertion of authority but the arbitrary use of power, with little explanation of the rules and no involvement in decision-making. . . . Involving the adolescent in decisions doesn’t mean that you are giving up your authority. It means acknowledging that the teenager is growing up and has the right to participate in decisions that affect his or her life.”
—Laurence Steinberg (20th century)
“We live between two worlds; we soar in the atmosphere; we creep upon the soil; we have the aspirations of creators and the propensities of quadrupeds. There can be but one explanation of this fact. We are passing from the animal into a higher form, and the drama of this planet is in its second act.”
—W. Winwood Reade (1838–1875)
“How strange a scene is this in which we are such shifting figures, pictures, shadows. The mystery of our existence—I have no faith in any attempted explanation of it. It is all a dark, unfathomed profound.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)