A first!

Where it all began.---The book grew out from an epic scientific paper in 1948, but luckly its author Shannon chose a light touch and a gentle delivery in his presentation. The paper became a book, with a 1949 first edition, which is now a classic, and which has been reprinted a number of times since, ending with the present lovely 1998 edition. It is still the place where readers can learn the essentials, including the two equations of information theory, that are now named after Claude Shannon.

Every computer scientist should read this monument!

While being referenced in many courses and textbooks, few have read it unfortunately. This is not the kind of book that will change your life but it is amongst the ones that are part of the CULTURE of anyone far or less involved in communication theory.The content is certainly very conceptual but it provides a different view of what information is. In this world where content is king, it will refresh your notion of syntax and semantics, and the difference between just words and the information that lies within them.Even if it is quite small, it's not the book you'll read from the beginning to the end without a stop. It is very deep and has profound implications on everyday's computer scientist's life. I've read once that often the size of a book is inversely proportional to its informational content...it is true for this one at least...

Seminal, far reaching, forgotten book

Glibly referred to evolved science of data communications, and a good bit more. The fact that I am the first reviewer in this forum speaks eloquently of the paucity of readers and the concomitant large number of data communication experts who have ignored the now larger issues it discloses than the single commercial application of one of its conclusions. Read it. You will agree with me that focusing on the source rather than the sink (terms he coined) is the weakness of communication theory as currently modeled on Shannon's first, obvious conclusion. The development of the digital computer over the past five decades has opened up the way to harness the ideas that lie latent in this excellent, groundbreaking book.Harvey B. Vedder ret Sr Data Comm Eng, Bell Atlantic us000483@mindspring.com