DEFLATEa

DEFLATEa is a hypothetical extension of the DEFLATE data compression algorithm, proposed in theoretical discussions and early experiments to explore enhancements for modern data workloads. It is not part of any formal standard, and no official specification exists at present.

Conceptually, DEFLATEa preserves the two-stage structure of DEFLATE—dictionary-based matching followed by entropy coding—while introducing several optional improvements intended to boost compression ratios and throughput on streaming data.

Proposed features include a larger, adjustable sliding window to enable longer matches, an expanded code space for length and distance values, and a context-adaptive entropy coder that can blend Huffman-like coding with arithmetic coding. It also envisions a more flexible block organization to support parallel decoding and streaming without full data buffering.

Because DEFLATEa is speculative, implementations exist only as prototypes or research code. There is no widely accepted API, and standard DEFLATE decoders cannot decode DEFLATEa streams without a corresponding decoder. The approach emphasizes modularity and experimentation, with attention to safety, data integrity, and compliance with applicable licenses.

See also: DEFLATE, gzip, zlib.