Norman Biggs

"This book is an integrated introduction to the mathematics of coding, that is, replacing information expressed in symbols, such as a natural language or a sequence of bits, by another message using (possibly) different symbols. There are three main reasons for doing this: economy, reliability, and security, and each is covered in detail. Only a modest mathematical background is assumed, the mathematical theory being introduced at a level that enables the basic problems to be stated carefully, but without unnecessary abstraction."--Jacket.

"My aim is to explain how mathematical ideas evolved in response to the growing levels of organization in human societies, from pre-historic times to the present day"--Preface.