Ideas tagged with computer science
Calculating Shannon entropy on octet streams can be confusing, especially with those who lack a background in mathematics. It's also not necessary in many cases. A more intuitive calculation, which is also easier to implement, involves calculating the average difference. An informal descripti...
By Tim McNamara
Conventionally, run-length encoding is restricted to a fixed alphabet. Because the encoded form is often transmitted over human-readable media, this alphabet is usually restricted to printed characters. That makes run-length encoding unsuitable for transmitting arbitrary byte strings. To addr...
By Tim McNamara