<anbu at peoplestring dot com> wrote: > Why are codes preferred in multiples of 8?
Because computers read, process, and write information 8 bits at a time (or 8 times some power of 2). To read, say, 3 bits, a computer must read in one or two 8-bit bytes, depending on context, and rotate and mask the unwanted bits. This is inefficient and makes random-access tasks like searching much more difficult than if code units are aligned on 8-bit boundaries. This sort of thing is useful when data size is at a premium, but once you go there, there are many general-purpose compression techniques that will provide better efficiency than a straight variable-width encoding. -- Doug Ewell | Thornton, Colorado, USA | RFC 5645, 4645, UTN #14 www.ewellic.org | www.facebook.com/doug.ewell | @DougEwell
