Line Coding

A variety of applications process images line by line, even if longer runs would result in a better compression.

Originally this procedure was driven by limited capabilities for memory and computing power. The resources for a temporary buffer will be saved without the need for decoding. The run-time performance increases accordingly.

Moreover the limitation on line boundaries prevents from incompatibilities because several applications and formats take this for granted.

Even if this is no longer necessary looking to the performance of current systems, this procedure is adapted to other data types requiring more resources (like the frame coding for video data).

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