Final version. It doesn’t work :(.
Oh well. To see how true it is that one line makes all the difference, cmd+f and search for “comment me out”.
If you can understand the triviality of this one line, that makes or breaks my entire algorithm, perhaps you will see a glimpse, a minute sliver, of the pain that overwhelms me as I sit here typing this commit.
How does one begin again? How does one rebound for another go at such a task? Will I try once more at compression? I suppose the hands of time are the only true healers in these regards. Some day, in months, perhaps years, I will heal. I will meet with, and surpass Weisman’s expectations. I shall achieve the fabled 5.7 compression score! 400 lines is all that is required. But like the relationship between circles and pi, those 400 lines may imply billions on different programs. I will find only one of such programs. And I will beat Weisman. Some day...

Anyways, I’m a bit annoyed that I’ve now written three failed compression algorithms (totaling about 1500+ lines of code). I might have uhh, not dealt with it entirely graciously but you know how it is...