repetitivecan

Repetitivecan is a theoretical construct in information theory and data representation describing a form of nested repetition encoding using units called cans. In this scheme, a can encapsulates a base sequence and attaches a repetition count, optionally containing other cans as its contents. The encoded data thus forms a hierarchical structure in which repetition is expressed by outer cans and self-similarity is captured by nesting. Decoding proceeds by recursively expanding each can according to its count, starting from the outermost container.

Origin and terminology: The name combines repetitive and can, reflecting the idea of a container for repeated content. It appears in speculative writings about alternative compression paradigms and is not part of standard codecs.

Mechanics: A simple example: a can containing the literal sequence 'ab' with count 3 encodes 'ababab'. A nested example: a can with count 2 containing another can that contains 'ab' with count 2 encodes 'abababab'.

Applications and limitations: The concept is primarily theoretical and used to illustrate hierarchical repetition; potential benefits include representing fractal-like or highly recursive data efficiently. Practical implementation faces decoding complexity, overhead for small data, and compatibility with existing compression schemes.

Related concepts: run-length encoding, grammar-based compression, Lempel-Ziv, fractal compression.