From: Hans Kristian Rosbach Date: Fri, 8 May 2015 13:07:19 +0000 (+0200) Subject: Add README file with markup code enabled, allows links and images to be shown on... X-Git-Tag: 1.9.9-b1~860 X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=af814efdedcf8e7222f87f598c28f8a50e996d27;p=thirdparty%2Fzlib-ng.git Add README file with markup code enabled, allows links and images to be shown on github. --- diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..35ea05455 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ +Travis CI: [![build status](https://api.travis-ci.org/Dead2/zlib-ng.svg)](https://travis-ci.org/Dead2/zlib-ng/) + +zlib-ng - zlib for the next generation systems + +Maintained by Hans Kristian Rosbach + aka Dead2 (zlib-ng àt circlestorm dót org) + + +Fork Motivation and History +--------------------------- + +The motivation for this fork was due to seeing several 3rd party +contributions containing new optimizations not getting implemented +into the official zlib repository. + +Mark Adler has been maintaining zlib for a very long time, and he has +done a great job and hopefully he will continue for a long time yet. +The idea of zlib-ng is not to replace zlib, but to co-exist as a +drop-in replacement with a lower threshold for code change. + +zlib has a long history and is incredibly portable, even supporting +lots of systems that predate the Internet. This is great, but it does +complicate further development and maintainability. +The zlib code has to make numerous workarounds for old compilers that +do not understand ANSI-C or to accommodate systems with limitations +such as operating in a 16-bit environment. + +Many of these workarounds are only maintenance burdens, some of them +are pretty huge code-wise. For example, the [v]s[n]printf workaround +code has a whopping 8 different implementations just to cater to +various old compilers. With this many workarounds cluttered throughout +the code, new programmers with an idea/interest for zlib will need +to take some time to figure out why all of these seemingly strange +things are used, and how to work within those confines. + +So I decided to make a fork, merge all the Intel optimizations, merge +the Cloudflare optimizations that did not conflict, plus a couple +of other smaller patches. Then I started cleaning out workarounds, +various dead code, all contrib and example code as there is little +point in having those in this fork for different reasons. + +Lastly I have been cleaning up the handling of different arches, +so that it will be easier to implement arch-specific code without +cluttering up the main code too much. + +Now, there is still a lot to do and I am sure there are better ways +of doing several of the changes I have done. And I would be delighted +to receive patches, preferably as pull requests on github. +Just remember that any code you submit must be your own and it must +be zlib licensed. + +Please read LICENSE.md, it is very simple and very liberal. + + +Acknowledgments +---------------- + +Big thanks to Raske Sider AS / raskesider.no for sponsoring my +maintainership of zlib-ng. + +The deflate format used by zlib was defined by Phil Katz. +The deflate and zlib specifications were written by L. Peter Deutsch. + +zlib was originally created by Jean-loup Gailly (compression) +and Mark Adler (decompression).