These directories contain programs and documentations related in some way
to "Introduction to Data Compression" by K. Sayood, published by 
Morgan-Kaufmann Publishers.  The directory structure is as follows

                            
                           /pub/sayood/programs 
                                     |            
                           ____________________  
                           |                  | 
                          man                doc

The programs themselves and a Makefile are in the this directory.  The
programs have been written in C.  They have been tested on a number of 
workstations and PCs.  They have always compiled under gcc, and should compile 
using other compilers as well.  If you do not have a copy of gcc you can
find out how to obtain it (and other gnu programs) from
ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/FTP.  

These programs are not production quality.  Their main purpose is to help 
the reader explore different data compression techniques.  They should be 
quite easy to modify for a specific application and you are welcome to 
do so.  If you have suggestions or discover any bugs it would be greatly 
appreciated if you could let us know at [email protected].

The documentation for the programs have been provided in two ways.  The
subdirectory man contains the documentation in a form suitable for man
pages on unix systems.  You can generate the man page for a particular
program called "prog" by using nroff

                 nroff -man prog.1 | more

or by putting the files in the man directory into /usr/local/man/man1
and typing "man prog".  The subdirectory doc contains the same documents
in ASCII.  You can also get help on how to use a program by running it with
the option -h.  Thus "prog -h" will get you information on how to run
the program prog.

Most of the examples in the book were generated using these programs.  If
you are reading the book you might find it helpful to repeat the examples
in the book.

There are quite a few very good programs available in the public domain
which implement different data compression techniques or standards.  The
subdirectory /pub/sayood/other contains pointers to some of these programs.


DISCLAIMER:

All programs and supporting material are presented "as is" without warranty
of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to
implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
Neither Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, the authors, nor anyone else who has been
involved in the creation, production, or delivery of this software shall be
liable for any direct, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from
use of the software or documentation, regardless of the theory of liability.

The entire risk as to quality, performance or results due to use of the
software is assumed by the user and the software is provided without support
or obligation of any kind to assist in its use, modification, or enhancement.
Should the software prove defective, the user (and not Morgan Kauffman
Publishers or others involved in the creation of this software) shall assume
the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction to the
software and any other software or equipment used in connection with it.
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc. does not accept any liability with respect
to infringement of copyrights, trade secrets, or patents by this software
or documentation.