Working on my own compression software, I developed a simple back-pointer/linear/run-length model. Then I realize I could get rid the RLE mode by a simple lazy match that tested the next byte beyond the present read pointer and if it was the same as the present byte.
Taking the idea further I wrote a test program for repeating double, triple and quad-byte strings. I found that for my test files that I have a good number of matches.
However, I am a poor programmer, so I tried to find if there is any info on how others solved this idea in the past. I can not find anything using Google, and what I can find about lazy-matching seems to apply to only one extra byte.
Am I wrong to call this lazy-matching? Is there another term I should look for on Google?