Linear-time, Incremental Hierarchy Inference for Compression

Data compression and learning are, in some sense, two sides of the same coin. If we paraphrase Occam’s razor by saying that a small theory is better than a larger theory with the same explanatory power, we can characterize data compression as a preoccupation with small, and learning as a preoccupation with better. Nevill-Manning et al. (1994) presented an algorithm, since dubbed SEQUITUR, that presents both faces of the compression/learning coin. Its performance as a data compression scheme outstrips other dictionary schemes, and the structures that it learns from sequences as diverse as DNA and music are intuitively compelling.