compaction

compaction
    n 1: an increase in the density of something [syn: {compaction},
         {compression}, {concretion}, {densification}]
    2: the act of crushing [syn: {crush}, {crunch}, {compaction}]
    

Compaction \Com*pac"tion\, n. [L. compactio.]
   The act of making compact, or the state of being compact.
   [Obs.] --Bacon.
   [1913 Webster]
    

compression
compaction
uncompression

   1. <application> (Or "compaction") The coding of data to save
   storage space or transmission time.  Although data is already
   coded in digital form for computer processing, it can often be
   coded more efficiently (using fewer bits).  For example,
   {run-length encoding} replaces strings of repeated characters
   (or other units of data) with a single character and a count.
   There are many compression {algorithms} and utilities.
   Compressed data must be decompressed before it can be used.

   The standard {Unix} compression utilty is called {compress}
   though {GNU}'s superior {gzip} has largely replaced it.  Other
   compression utilties include {pack}, {zip} and {PKZIP}.

   When compressing several similar files, it is usually better
   to join the files together into an {archive} of some kind
   (using {tar} for example) and then compress them, rather than
   to join together individually compressed files.  This is
   because some common compression {algorithms} build up tables
   based on the data from their current input which they have
   already compressed.  They then use this table to compress
   subsequent data more efficiently.

   See also {TIFF}, {JPEG}, {MPEG}, {Lempel-Ziv Welch},
   "{lossy}", "{lossless}".

   Compression FAQ
   (ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/compression-faq/).

   Web Content Compression FAQ
   
(http://perl.apache.org/docs/tutorials/client/compression/compression.html).

   Usenet newsgroups: news:comp.compression,
   news:comp.compression.research.

   2. <multimedia> Reducing the dynamic range of an audio signal,
   making quiet sounds louder and loud sounds quieter.  Thus,
   when discussing digital audio, the preferred term for reducing
   the total amount of data is "compaction".  Some advocate this
   term in all contexts.

   (2004-04-26)