Jacob Ziv has died

Sad news. Just recently Abraham Lempel [0] died, just days after I tasked my 16 yo daughter to implement an lzw compression as a part of her programming education. I chose this particular task for her because many years ago I have implemented an lzw compression myself, years ago, learning a lot about bits, masks and gifs in the process. R.I.P.<p>[0]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Abraham_Lempel" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Abraham_Lempel</a>

RIP. I remember when I was a young guy learning programming, reading the source code of various DOS based LZ, LZH or LZW compression utilities and implementing myself a LZH algorithm thinking it will bring me great fame and fortune. Lempel, Ziv and Eugene Roshall were my heroes.<p>At that time many young programmers regarded compression, compiler writing and anti-virus writing as very important. Now people just learn React. :)

LZ77 and LZ78 are ubiquitous, forming the basis of compression schemes used in ZIP, PNG, GIF, and Yann Collet&#x27;s Zstandard.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;LZ77_and_LZ78" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;LZ77_and_LZ78</a>

In an interview, Jacob Ziv said that it was the uncomputability of Kolmogorov complexity that forced him to think about a different way to define the complexity of a single finite string : this is what led to Lempel-Ziv complexity in 1976, and its famous consequences, the LZ77 and the ZL78 compressors.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20181123231027&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;backup.itsoc.org&#x2F;publications&#x2F;nltr&#x2F;96_dec&#x2F;zivconv.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20181123231027&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;backup.its...</a>

It is fitting that such a large name is expressed in so few characters. RIP.

Two Professors Emeritus from my alam mater, the Technion - one from EE, the other from CS (Prof. Ziv). I distinctly remember noticing them in the old group photos of the first few graduating cohorts of the B.Sc. in CS.<p>In Hebrew (or rather Aramaeic) we say:<p>חבל על דאבדין ולא משתכחין<p>A pity due to those who absent and not present.

From wikipedia:<p><pre><code> Jacob *Z*iv (Hebrew: 27 November 1931 – 25 March 2023) was an Israeli electrical engineer who, along with Abraham *L*empel, developed the *LZ* family of lossless data compression algorithms.</code></pre>

RIP<p>With better compression, heaven will soon have more space available.

To everyone who is wondering, there is a black bar its just one pixel.

Paying my respects to a pioneer.<p>I started a project to implement a LZ77 decoder in Game Boy assembly to see if it could compress the sprites in Pokémon Red and Blue versions better than the algorithms actually used in the game. Results are inconclusive so far, but it&#x27;s been an enlightening experience.

May his memory be a blessing.

I remember my first LZW implementation. It was so amusing to me the the one case where something didn&#x27;t exist in the dictionary yet, you knew what it was and could add it and keep going!

I’m a bit surprised that neither Lempel nor Ziv were worthy of a black bar here.

RIP. I just got done implementing a modified version of LZSS which is crucial to fitting all the music into a game I&#x27;m writing. Respect.

Lempel, Moore, Ziv... This year is very unlucky

RIP.<p>This is worthy of an HN black bar.

Rest in peace! &lt;3

Oh no!