Prefix code: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:43, 7 May 2006

Revision as of 19:53, 12 May 2006

Line 52:

0,1,1,01,0,01,1,0,1

Normally, this would take 72 bits to store because each character of the sentence encoded in ASCII takes eigheight bits and there are nine words. With our code it takes the equivelent of 31 bits to store. This is because we have 19 characters and each character can take three possible values. We have achieved some shortening of the message due to the choice of encoding!

[[Morse code]] is an everyday example of a variable-length code with a comma. The long spaces between letters, and even longer spaces between words, help people recognize where one letter/word ends, and the next begins.