Coding symbolic data
Data compression is the science (and art) of representing information in a compact form. However, what is information? How would information be represented in a ‘normal’ form, i.e. the form before any compression? What do we mean by source data? How would we know if there is any redundancy in a source?
To answer these questions, we need first to clarify the meaning of terms such as information, data, codes and coding, and study the basics of information theory. Some conclusions and techniques learnt from this chapter will be very useful for later chapters.
2.1 Information, data and codes
Information is something that adds to people’s knowledge. It is whatever contributes to a reduction in uncertainty of the human ...
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