Compress small text messages by just restricting the alphabet. Adds bidict.

1 files changed, 70 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/letter_compress.py b/letter_compress.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..01d40f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/letter_compress.py
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+
+import bitstring
+
+import bidict
+
+
+special_characters = bidict.bidict(
+    {
+        ' ': 27,
+        '.': 28,
+        ',': 29,
+        "-": 30,
+        '"': 31,
+    }
+)
+
+
+def compress(uncompressed: str) -> bytes:
+    """
+    Compress a word sequence into a stream of bytes.  The compressed
+    form will be 5/8th the size of the original.  Words can be lower
+    case letters or special_characters (above).
+
+    >>> import binascii
+    >>> binascii.hexlify(compress('this is a test'))
+    b'99d12d225a06a6494c'
+
+    """
+    compressed = bitstring.BitArray()
+    for (n, letter) in enumerate(uncompressed):
+        if 'a' <= letter <= 'z':
+            bits = ord(letter) - ord('a') + 1   # 1..26
+        else:
+            if letter not in special_characters:
+                raise Exception(f'"{uncompressed}" contains uncompressable char="{letter}"')
+            bits = special_characters[letter]
+        compressed.append(f"uint:5={bits}")
+    while len(compressed) % 8 != 0:
+        compressed.append("uint:1=0")
+    return compressed.bytes
+
+
+def decompress(kompressed: bytes) -> str:
+    """
+    Decompress a previously compressed stream of bytes back into
+    its original form.
+
+    >>> import binascii
+    >>> decompress(binascii.unhexlify(b'99d12d225a06a6494c'))
+    'this is a test'
+
+    """
+    decompressed = ''
+    compressed = bitstring.BitArray(kompressed)
+    for chunk in compressed.cut(5):
+        chunk = chunk.uint
+        if chunk == 0:
+            break
+        elif 1 <= chunk <= 26:
+            letter = chr(chunk - 1 + ord('a'))
+        else:
+            letter = special_characters.inverse[chunk][0]
+        decompressed += letter
+    return decompressed
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    import doctest
+    doctest.testmod()