TSL (Text Storage Language) is a variant of the .txt format that currently averages about a 40% compression ratio, useful for storing large text files. It is advantageous to zipped files in that it does not need to be decompressed to be used by programs, enabling larger text files to be accessed while using less memory.
TSL is being developed by Tom Morrell as a free replacement for the standard text format, and it is intended to eventually be used (in a modified form) to compress documents before encrypting them using another algorithm. Although the rate at which technology is progressing may make the need for compressed text seem outdated, variable bit-rate enryption is more difficult to crack than standard encryption, and online encyclopedias (and other databases) can benefit from lower bandwidth and storage costs with the fast transport of compressed text.
TSL is always looking for volunteer developers! You can sign up to volunteer here or e-mail us.
Donate here (feature will be available as soon as a full TSL editor is available).
Guidelines for the TSL format are now up (in /0.0 - Individual Components/TSL Format.txt). The chart in this document illustrates how TSL is encoded from a text file. TSL will be constructed as a variable-bit encryption algorithm to decrease the amount of space required to store text files without increasing the amount of memory required to open them.