Use ncount=1 when < 4096 symbols

lib/compress/zstd_compress_sequences.c

@@ -50,6 +50,19 @@ static unsigned ZSTD_getFSEMaxSymbolValue(FSE_CTable const* ctable) {
   return maxSymbolValue;
 }
 
+/**
+ * Returns true if we should use ncount=-1 else we should
+ * use ncount=1 for low probability symbols instead.
+ */
+static unsigned ZSTD_useLowProbCount(size_t const nbSeq)
+{
+    /* Heuristic: This should cover most blocks <= 16K and
+     * start to fade out after 16K to about 32K depending on
+     * comprssibility.
+     */
+    return nbSeq >= 2048;
+}
+
 /**
  * Returns the cost in bytes of encoding the normalized count header.
  * Returns an error if any of the helper functions return an error.
@@ -60,7 +73,7 @@ static size_t ZSTD_NCountCost(unsigned const* count, unsigned const max,
     BYTE wksp[FSE_NCOUNTBOUND];
     S16 norm[MaxSeq + 1];
     const U32 tableLog = FSE_optimalTableLog(FSELog, nbSeq, max);
-    FORWARD_IF_ERROR(FSE_normalizeCount(norm, tableLog, count, nbSeq, max), "");
+    FORWARD_IF_ERROR(FSE_normalizeCount(norm, tableLog, count, nbSeq, max, ZSTD_useLowProbCount(nbSeq)), "");
     return FSE_writeNCount(wksp, sizeof(wksp), norm, max, tableLog);
 }
 
@@ -253,7 +266,7 @@ ZSTD_buildCTable(void* dst, size_t dstCapacity,
             nbSeq_1--;
         }
         assert(nbSeq_1 > 1);
-        FORWARD_IF_ERROR(FSE_normalizeCount(norm, tableLog, count, nbSeq_1, max), "");
+        FORWARD_IF_ERROR(FSE_normalizeCount(norm, tableLog, count, nbSeq_1, max, ZSTD_useLowProbCount(nbSeq_1)), "");
         {   size_t const NCountSize = FSE_writeNCount(op, oend - op, norm, max, tableLog);   /* overflow protected */
             FORWARD_IF_ERROR(NCountSize, "FSE_writeNCount failed");
             FORWARD_IF_ERROR(FSE_buildCTable_wksp(nextCTable, norm, max, tableLog, entropyWorkspace, entropyWorkspaceSize), "");