Author: Stan Eisenstat
Subject: Re: [Cs323] Send code table in LZW
Date: Sunday, 11 Oct 2020, 09:29:40

    > Message Posted By: Unknown
    >
    > I am struggling to see why we have to build the rest of the table as we go
    > in the decoding process of LZW.  Why not just send the complete table we
    > developed when encoding? Wouldn't this avoid the KwKwK problem in the
    > first place?

First, in some circumstances Compress canot encode the
entire input stream before sending the first bit.

Second, assuming that the table keeps growing as more
strings are added, sending the table would more than
double the number of bits sent.  For each entry was
added after a code was sent, and sending its PREF field
requires at least as many bits.

--Stan-