Compressed LDraw files
2013-01-29, 20:33 (This post was last modified: 2013-02-03, 1:34 by Steffen.)
2013-01-29, 20:33 (This post was last modified: 2013-02-03, 1:34 by Steffen.)
Hi all,
I'm thinking about supporting zipped ldraw files in LDCad without the need for users to unzip them first. This idea comes mainly from the fact my new deform functionality tends to create quite large files. These files can be compressed extremely well (1.5MB becomes a couple of K etc).
It would be almost trivial for me to implement an unzip before parsing and a zip before saving files in my editor. But I was thinking maybe other software authors would like to provide the same support.
So a semi serious public discussion about how to name/handle compressed LDRaw files might be in order. That way we could all use this.
I was thinking about using zlib (other authors could use any other zip supporting library) and simply prefixing "gz-" to the file extension, so e.g. "someBigModel.mpd" becomes "someBigModel.gz-mpd". The contents of the mpd itself stay unchanged.
Toughts?
I'm thinking about supporting zipped ldraw files in LDCad without the need for users to unzip them first. This idea comes mainly from the fact my new deform functionality tends to create quite large files. These files can be compressed extremely well (1.5MB becomes a couple of K etc).
It would be almost trivial for me to implement an unzip before parsing and a zip before saving files in my editor. But I was thinking maybe other software authors would like to provide the same support.
So a semi serious public discussion about how to name/handle compressed LDRaw files might be in order. That way we could all use this.
I was thinking about using zlib (other authors could use any other zip supporting library) and simply prefixing "gz-" to the file extension, so e.g. "someBigModel.mpd" becomes "someBigModel.gz-mpd". The contents of the mpd itself stay unchanged.
Toughts?