An ode to bzip

The author explores compression algorithms for Lua code in ComputerCraft (a Minecraft mod) due to limited disk space. After benchmarking multiple encoders, the bzip family significantly outperforms LZ77-based alternatives like zstd, xz, and brotli on text-like data. The key difference is that bzip uses BWT (Burrows-Wheeler Transform), which regroups characters by context rather than relying on backreferences, making it exceptionally effective for code and text compression.