The upstream issue #274 in the zune-image repository discussed arithmetic
coding as potentially non-standard and rare, but I've since clarified that it's
a fully standardized feature under ITU-T T.81 (ISO/IEC 10918-1) and ITU-T T.851
with their corrigenda. Patents that historically limited adoption are now
expired, opening the door for broader support.
The upstream maintainer indicated they'd consider adding this if a strong
reason or motivated contributor emerged. To address that, I've created
https://github.com/etemesi254/zune-image/issues/350
https://github.com/etemesi254/zune-image/issues/350 with detailed rationale,
including potential file size savings (e.g., 5-7% in literature, up to 16% in
Chromium benchmarks, and over 3× in my local test). This could benefit Debian
users by enabling more efficient image handling in applications relying on
zune-image.
I'm motivated to see this through and happy to assist with testing if needed.
If the upstream ultimately declines, we could explore alternatives, but I
believe this merits reconsideration given the new information.
Would you please consider reopening the bug to allow further discussion?
Thank you for your time and efforts in maintaining Debian.
Gratefully,
Albert
