The primary purpose of this book is to explain various data-compression techniques using the C

programming language. Data compression seeks to reduce the number of bits used to store or transmit information. It encompasses a wide variety of software and hardware compression

techniques which can be so unlike one another that they have little in common except that they

compress data. The LZW algorithm used in the Compuserve GIF specification, for example, has

virtually nothing in common with the CCITT G.721 specification used to compress digitized voice

over phone lines.