Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!helios!archone!byron
From: byron@archone.tamu.edu (Byron Rakitzis)
Newsgroups: comp.compression
Subject: Another naive question
Message-ID: <14292@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Date: 8 Apr 91 03:06:08 GMT
Sender: usenet@helios.TAMU.EDU
Organization: College of Architecture, Texas A&M University.
Lines: 23

I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction so I can
find out more about the so-called "entropy" of data.

Just thinking about it in the shower, it occurs to me that one might be
able to take any given binary string, and say, "this turing machine foo
can print this string bar". If foo's number (you can enumerate all turing
machines) has a smaller number of digits than the original string bar, then
you've just shown something interesting about bar, namely that it has a more
compact representation in the form of a turing machine foo.

Now, I'm probably barking up the wrong tree when I speak of turing machines,
but I'm hoping someone will point me at the right references.

Byron.
---
char*c,q[512],m[256],*v[99],**u,*i[3];f[2],p;main(){for(m[m[60]=m[62]=32]=m[*m=m
[124]=9]=6;e(-8),gets(1+(c=q))||exit(0);r(0,0))for(;*++c;);}r(t,o){for(*i=i[2]=0
,u=v+98;m[*--c]^9;m[*c]&32?i[*c&2]=u[0],u-v^98&&++u:3)if(!m[*c]){for(*++c=0;!m[*
--c];);*--u=c+++1;}u-v^98?strcmp(*u,"cd")?*c?pipe(f),o=f[1]:1,(p=fork())?e(p),o?
r(o,0),z(o),z(*f):4,wait(0):(o?dup2(*f,0),z(*f),z(o):*i?1,z(0),e(open(*i,0)):5,t
?dup2(t,1),z(t):i[2]?9,z(1),e(creat(i[2],438)):2,e(execvp(*u,u))):e(chdir(u[1])*
2):6;}e(x){x<0?write(2,"?\n$ "-x/4,2),x+1||exit(1):5;}z(i){close(i);}
				(by Byron Rakitzis and Sean Dorward)