Do It by the Numbers-Digital Shorthand

Present communications systems transmit single
characters in groups of coded pulses between 
simple terminal equipments.  Since English words form only
a sparse set of all possible alphabetic combinations, 
present methods are inefficient when computer systems
are substituted for these terminals.  Using numeric 
representations of entire words or common phrases (rather
than character-by-character representations) 
requires approximately one-third of present transmission
time.  This saving is reflected in overall costs. 
 Other benefits accrue in code and language translation
schemes. Provision is made for transmission of 
purely numeric and/or binary streams, and for single
character-transmission of non-dictionary words such 
as the names of people or places.

CACM October, 1960 

Bemer, R. W.

CA601004 JB March 20, 1978  8:27 PM

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