Szip uses a limited order Sort transform. This transformation is related to
the Burrows-Wheeler transformation used in blocksorting compression methods.
The difference is a fast, deterministic behaviour in time at some compression
loss. And you can easily do it in hardware. Licencees (including hardware
licencees) are welcome. More info is available on
http://eiunix.tuwien.ac.at/~michael/st/

As next step it uses a probability model for blocksorted files.

The last step is entropy encoding using a range coder. More info, including a
GNU GPL sourcecode, can be found on http://www.compressconsult.com/rangecoder/
This coder is based on an article published in 1979 and is belived to be
patent-free.

The compressed format supports multiple files including creation, modification
and accesstime, owner, group and protection. However the *program* does not
support it; if you want to contribute code doing that you are welcome.


further questions or bug reports?
look at the webpage http://www.compressconsult.com/szip/
contact szip@compressconsult.com