From: Ahmad Azizan <ahmad.azizan@...>
Date: 2010-03-22T16:32:17+09:00
Subject: Decompressing LZW compression from PDF file

Hello,

I'm trying to find a ruby module/code that can decompress
LZW-compression-scheme from a PDF file. However, there is no such code
or module (as far as I've known) that exist publicly.

PDF usually compress its stream data by using FlateDecode,
ASCIIHexDecode, ASCII85Decode, and LZWDecode. In ruby, FlateDecode and
ASCII85Decode can be decompressed with existing ruby module which are
zlib and Ascii85. For ASCIIHexDecode, I just need to convert Hex
characters to char. My problem arise from the LZWDecode since there is
no module or code to decompress it.

Since there is no code example of implementing the LZW decompression in
ruby, I've found the implementation code from python. However,
translating python into ruby seems to be a pain-in-a-butt process.

Example of working LZW decompression in python is here:
http://pastebin.ca/1849009
My translated code in ruby is here: http://pastebin.ca/1849012

With a small input, I can decompress the it to get the equivalent output
like the python code.
e.g:
Python
 data = "\x80\x0b\x60\x50\x22\x0c\x0c\x85\x01"
 tmp = LZWDecode(data)
 print tmp

 data = "\x80\x0b\x60\x50\x22\x0c\x0c\x85\x01"
 lzw = LZWDecoder.new(data)
 puts lzw.run()

However, with a real stream from PDF file, I cannot get the decompressed
output. I guess it might be some error in the code or improper handling
of special character in ruby.
I've spent large amount of hours/days in digesting how to decompress LZW
stream and try to translate from python to ruby. It seems that my
current effort didnt give me a bright end. I really hope someone can
help me pointing some of the hint or solution towards this problem.

Thank you
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