alt Hacker NewsHis also omits CRC, which is part of the 25k lines, no --fast/--best/etc, missing some output formats, and so on. I'm sure the 25k includes a lot of bloat, but the comparison is odd. Comparing to your list would make much more sense.
Replies
fullstop • today at 3:17 PM
gzip also contains a significant amount of compatibility code for different platforms.
xxs • today at 3:51 PM
Crc32 can be written in handful lines of code. Although it'd be better to use the vector instruction set - e.g. AVX when available.
I would expect a CRC to add a negligible number of lines of code. The reason that production-grade decompressors are tens of thousands of LOC is likely attributable to extreme manual optimization. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if a measurable fraction of those lines are actually inline assembly.