The purpose of the article is twofold: to give an elementary andconcrete introduction to symbolic dynamics and to discuss twoapplications to coding problems. It begins with a brief discussion ofthe origins of symbolic dynamics going back to the work of Radamard in1898. The rough idea is that symbolic dynamics provides a model for theorbits of a classical dynamical system via a space of sequences. Next itintroduces the basic concepts of symbolic dynamics, emphasizing slidingblock codes. Some of the fundamental problems, solved and unsolved, inthe subject, are surveyed. Then it shows how work on these problems hasled to coding applications
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