Error coding for engineers (Q2756536)

The book is ``intended as an interface between the practical world of the engineer and the often abstract domain of mathematics''. It describes error-correcting and detecting codes, Reed-Muller codes, Reed-Solomon codes, and convolutional codes. Mathematical details and notations are avoided as far as possible. For an (expensive!) textbook, there are too many annoying inaccuracies or errors (e.g, the computation/explanation of bit error rate as early as on page 9). The reviewer feels that the author goes somewhat too far in his avoiding of mathematics. As an example, consider the following text (p. 45) ``Extension of Hamming codes to longer messages becomes increasingly difficult to visualize. The three-dimensional view of Figure 4.1 has to include ``magic tunnels'' in order to provide greater dimensionality to the system of equations that result''. A description of the parity check matrix of Hamming codes would be much more informative! The book in not recommended for persons with a theoretical interest in error-correcting codes. For practicing engineers, the discussion of some elementary hardware issues and the ``software library'' for computing in finite fields and decoding Reed-Solomon codes may be of some interest.