In https://www.kermitproject.org/newsn5.html I found this lovely quote:
> "Kermit will send data over a communication channel that is only slightly better than a pair of tin cans connected with a wet string")
> "Kermit will send data over a communication channel that is only slightly better than a pair of tin cans connected with a wet string")
> To reduce transmission overhead, the Kermit protocol uses a simple, but often surprisingly effective, compression technique: repeated byte values are represented by a count+byte combination.
> Analysis of large volumes of both textual and binary data shows an average compression of 15-20%.
That's just an implementation of RLE[0]. Very common in formats from the 80s. RLE was e.g. used in Amiga IFF ILBM compression.