What is the current state of text-only compression algorithms?

Question

In honor of the Hutter Prize, what are the top algorithms (and a quick description of each) for text compression?

Note: The intent of this question is to get a descript

Answer 1

There's always lzip.

All kidding aside:

• Where compatibility is a concern, PKZIP (DEFLATE algorithm) still wins.
• bzip2 is the best compromise between being enjoying a relatively broad install base and a rather good compression ratio, but requires a separate archiver.
• 7-Zip (LZMA algorithm) compresses very well and is available for under the LGPL. Few operating systems ship with built-in support, however.
• rzip is a variant of bzip2 that in my opinion deserves more attention. It could be particularly interesting for huge log files that need long-term archiving. It also requires a separate archiver.