In this article, the author discusses how changing uppercase letters to lowercase letters can save data through text compression. They start by explaining that lowercase and uppercase letters use the same amount of data, which makes it surprising that swapping uppercase letters for lowercase letters actually reduces the file size. This is due to the principles of text compression, specifically the Huffman encoding and LZSS compression methods. By replacing uppercase characters with their lowercase counterparts, the variety of characters in the text is reduced, less common characters are used less frequently, and repeated characters or groups of characters become more common. Lowercasing can lead to more efficient compression, as it results in smaller Huffman trees and more repeated sequences in the LZSS algorithm. The author provides examples and interactive explanations to help readers understand the concepts. They also highlight the potential energy savings from using lowercase letters in code and text, emphasizing that while the impact may seem small, it can add up when applied collectively. Overall, lowercase letters can be cleverly used to save data and optimize web performance.
https://endtimes.dev/why-lowercase-letters-save-data/