David A. Huffman, "father" of compression died yesterday
Ken Huffman
pancreatic cancer.
While getting his masters degree, a professor gave his students the option
of solving a difficult problem instead of taking the final exam. Opting for
what he thought was the easy way out, my uncle tried to find a solution to
the "smallest code" problem. What his professor DIDN'T tell him is that no
one at that time knew the best solution. As the term drew to a close, David
realized he'd have to start studying for the exam and starting throwing away
his scratchings on the problem. As one of the papers hit the trash can, the
algorithm came to him.
He published the paper "A Method for The Construction of Minimum Redundancy
Codes" describing his algorithm in 1952. This became known as Huffman
coding. At the time he didn't consider copyrighting or patenting it,
because was just an algorithm, and he didn't make a penny off of it.
Because of its elegance and simplicity, it is described in may textbooks and
several web pages. I just saw a posting on this newsgroup of a description
of Huffman coding: http://www.astraware.com/program/vbhuffman.html. Today
derivative forms of Huffman coding can found in household appliances
(VCRPlus+ codes) and web pages (the Jpeg image file format).
He eventually became a professor at UCSC School of Engineering. In recent
decades, his interest turned to the complex mathematical properties of
zero-curvature surfaces. "Proofs" of his concepts led to elegant paper
foldings (http://www.sgi.com/grafica/huffman/) which belie their complex
mathematical origins. Some of them have even been displayed in art museums.
He received several awards for his contributions to computer science during
his career, most recently he was awarded the 1999 IEEE Richard W. Hamming
Medal (http://www.ucsc.edu/oncampus/currents/98-99/05-17/huffman.htm),
recognizing his exceptional contributions to information sciences and
systems. Unfortunately he was not able to receive the award in person, due
to his ill health.
He was a great person to be around; always good-natured and thought
provoking. Conversations with him kept you on your toes, because you
couldn't always tell if was joking or serious, but always with an apropos
story. As an school-aged kid, I remember playing the game of Nim
(http://www.journey.sunysb.edu/Wise/Games/Nim.html) with him on the living
room floor and being amazed, and frustrated, that he ALWAYS won. He later
wrote out the strategy, in a detailed long-hand note to me, explaining the
concepts of binary exclusive-or arithmetic. A bonding moment with a fellow
geek, of sorts. Partly because of his interest in computers, I followed his
footsteps into software engineering.
He stayed active until cancer spread through his body this past year. To an
Ohioan, he seemed to be a typical Californian. A surfer and scuba diver
into his 70s. He married his girlfriend of a few decades last week in the
hospital. Although I was not there, I was later told it was beautiful
ceremony. His new bride and close family were with him at the hospital when
he died. He was loved and will be missed.
SCOTT19U.ZIP_GUY
>My uncle, David A. Huffman, creator of Huffman coding, died yesterday of
>pancreatic cancer.
>
David A. also I liked this letter.
>While getting his masters degree, a professor gave his students the option
>of solving a difficult problem instead of taking the final exam. Opting for
>what he thought was the easy way out, my uncle tried to find a solution to
>the "smallest code" problem. What his professor DIDN'T tell him is that no
>one at that time knew the best solution. As the term drew to a close, David
>realized he'd have to start studying for the exam and starting throwing away
>his scratchings on the problem. As one of the papers hit the trash can, the
>algorithm came to him.
file. I think I have and I will not patent it either. But my mods to adaptive
huffman coding make a compression program that maps any 8-bit byte binary
file to a 8-bit byte binary file in such a way that any file can be considered
a compressed or uncompressed file. This is of great use in things like
encryption where other compresssion techniques leave clues to one trying
to break the encryption.
My huffman compression stuff starts at
http://members.xoom.com/ecil/compress.htm
P.S.
NIm is a fun game have won lots of games with
know it all with it.
David A. Scott
--
SCOTT19U.ZIP NOW AVAILABLE WORLD WIDE
http://www.jim.com/jamesd/Kong/scott19u.zip
http://members.xoom.com/ecil/index.htm
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Sundial Services
had died, or prompt any of us to see him as -- not just a figure in a
textbook we all read in college, but a human being who lived and
breathed... and thought, in ways that no one else did at the time.
Only the Internet would prompt us to ... offer our condolences to David
Huffman's nephew. :-/
Mathew Hendry
<in...@sundialservices.com> wrote:
>Only the Internet would allow any of us to know that Mr. (Dr.?) Huffman
>had died, or prompt any of us to see him as -- not just a figure in a
>textbook we all read in college, but a human being who lived and
>breathed... and thought, in ways that no one else did at the time.
>
>Only the Internet would prompt us to ... offer our condolences to David
>Huffman's nephew. :-/
The obituary modestly understates the importance of Huffman coding - I
would guess that Ken's message has already been Huffman coded
thousands, perhaps millions of times all over the world.
-- Mat.
Jim Haynes
dario...@my-deja.com
As a compression programmer, I've implemented Huffman,
and even wrote two articles explaining it, that now I
want to dedicate them to the memory of D.A. Huffman.
(http://www.ross.net/arturocampos)
I sincerily offer my condolences to Huffman's family.
For the rest of you I can only say, "Carpe diem"
(take profit of your days).
Arturo Campos
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.