title: Varicode
text: # Varicode
  
  Varicode is a self-synchronizing code for use in PSK31. It supports all ASCII characters, but the characters used most frequently in English have shorter codes. The space between characters is indicated by a 00 sequence, an implementation of Fibonacci coding. Originally created for speeding up real-time keyboard-to-keyboard exchanges over low bandwidth links, Varicode is freely available.
  
  ## Limitations
  
  * Varicode provides somewhat weaker compression in languages other than English that use same characters as in English.
  
  ## Varicode table
  
  ### Control characters
  
  | Varicode | Oct | Dec | Hex | Abbr | Description |
  | - | - | - | - | - | - |
  | 1010101011 | 000 | 0 | 00 | NUL | Null character |
  | 1011011011 | 001 | 1 | 01 | SOH | Start of Header |
  | 1011101101 | 002 | 2 | 02 | STX | Start of Text |
  | 1101110111 | 003 | 3 | 03 | ETX | End of Text |
  | 1011101011 | 004 | 4 | 04 | EOT | End of Transmission |
  | 1101011111 | 005 | 5 | 05 | ENQ | Enquiry |
  | 1011101111 | 006 | 6 | 06 | ACK | Acknowledgment |
  | 1011111101 | 007 | 7 | 07 | BEL | Bell |
  | 1011111111 | 010 | 8 | 08 | BS | Backspace |
  | 11101111 | 011 | 9 | 09 | HT | Horizontal Tab |
  | 11101 | 012 | 10 | 0A | LF | Line feed |
  | 1101101111 | 013 | 11 | 0B | VT | Vertical Tab |
  | 1011011101 | 014 | 12 | 0C | FF | Form feed |
  | 11111 | 015 | 13 | 0D | CR | Carriage return |
  | 1101110101 | 016 | 14 | 0E | SO | Shift Out |
  | 1110101011 | 017 | 15 | 0F | SI | Shift In |
  | 1011110111 | 020 | 16 | 10 | DLE | Data Link Escape |
  | 1011110101 | 021 | 17 | 11 | DC1 | Device Control 1 (XON) |
  | 1110101101 | 022 | 18 | 12 | DC2 | Device Control 2 |
  | 1110101111 | 023 | 19 | 13 | DC3 | Device Control 3 (XOFF) |
  | 1101011011 | 024 | 20 | 14 | DC4 | Device Control 4 |
  | 1101101011 | 025 | 21 | 15 | NAK | Negative Acknowledgement |
  | 1101101101 | 026 | 22 | 16 | SYN | Synchronous Idle |
  | 1101010111 | 027 | 23 | 17 | ETB | End of Trans. Block |
  | 1101111011 | 030 | 24 | 18 | CAN | Cancel |
  | 1101111101 | 031 | 25 | 19 | EM | End of Medium |
  | 1110110111 | 032 | 26 | 1A | SUB | Substitute |
  | 1101010101 | 033 | 27 | 1B | ESC | Escape |
  | 1101011101 | 034 | 28 | 1C | FS | File Separator |
  | 1110111011 | 035 | 29 | 1D | GS | Group Separator |
  | 1011111011 | 036 | 30 | 1E | RS | Record Separator |
  | 1101111111 | 037 | 31 | 1F | US | Unit Separator |
  | 1110110101 | 177 | 127 | 7F | DEL | Delete |
  
  ### Printable characters
  
  | Varicode | Oct | Dec | Hex | Glyph |
  | - | - | - | - | - |
  | 1 | 040 | 32 | 20 | SP |
  | 111111111 | 041 | 33 | 21 | ! |
  | 101011111 | 042 | 34 | 22 | " |
  | 111110101 | 043 | 35 | 23 | # |
  | 111011011 | 044 | 36 | 24 | $ |
  | 1011010101 | 045 | 37 | 25 | % |
  | 1010111011 | 046 | 38 | 26 | & |
  | 101111111 | 047 | 39 | 27 | ' |
  | 11111011 | 050 | 40 | 28 | ( |
  | 11110111 | 051 | 41 | 29 | ) |
  | 101101111 | 052 | 42 | 2A | * |
  | 111011111 | 053 | 43 | 2B | + |
  | 1110101 | 054 | 44 | 2C | , |
  | 110101 | 055 | 45 | 2D | - |
  | 1010111 | 056 | 46 | 2E | . |
  | 110101111 | 057 | 47 | 2F | / |
  | 10110111 | 060 | 48 | 30 | 0 |
  | 10111101 | 061 | 49 | 31 | 1 |
  | 11101101 | 062 | 50 | 32 | 2 |
  | 11111111 | 063 | 51 | 33 | 3 |
  | 101110111 | 064 | 52 | 34 | 4 |
  | 101011011 | 065 | 53 | 35 | 5 |
  | 101101011 | 066 | 54 | 36 | 6 |
  | 110101101 | 067 | 55 | 37 | 7 |
  | 110101011 | 070 | 56 | 38 | 8 |
  | 110110111 | 071 | 57 | 39 | 9 |
  | 11110101 | 072 | 58 | 3A | : |
  | 110111101 | 073 | 59 | 3B | ; |
  | 111101101 | 074 | 60 | 3C | < |
  | 1010101 | 075 | 61 | 3D | = |
  | 111010111 | 076 | 62 | 3E | > |
  | 1010101111 | 077 | 63 | 3F | ? |
  | Varicode | Oct | Dec | Hex | Glyph |
  | 1010111101 | 100 | 64 | 40 | @ |
  | 1111101 | 101 | 65 | 41 | A |
  | 11101011 | 102 | 66 | 42 | B |
  | 10101101 | 103 | 67 | 43 | C |
  | 10110101 | 104 | 68 | 44 | D |
  | 1110111 | 105 | 69 | 45 | E |
  | 11011011 | 106 | 70 | 46 | F |
  | 11111101 | 107 | 71 | 47 | G |
  | 101010101 | 110 | 72 | 48 | H |
  | 1111111 | 111 | 73 | 49 | I |
  | 111111101 | 112 | 74 | 4A | J |
  | 101111101 | 113 | 75 | 4B | K |
  | 11010111 | 114 | 76 | 4C | L |
  | 10111011 | 115 | 77 | 4D | M |
  | 11011101 | 116 | 78 | 4E | N |
  | 10101011 | 117 | 79 | 4F | O |
  | 11010101 | 120 | 80 | 50 | P |
  | 111011101 | 121 | 81 | 51 | Q |
  | 10101111 | 122 | 82 | 52 | R |
  | 1101111 | 123 | 83 | 53 | S |
  | 1101101 | 124 | 84 | 54 | T |
  | 101010111 | 125 | 85 | 55 | U |
  | 110110101 | 126 | 86 | 56 | V |
  | 101011101 | 127 | 87 | 57 | W |
  | 101110101 | 130 | 88 | 58 | X |
  | 101111011 | 131 | 89 | 59 | Y |
  | 1010101101 | 132 | 90 | 5A | Z |
  | 111110111 | 133 | 91 | 5B | [ |
  | 111101111 | 134 | 92 | 5C | \ |
  | 111111011 | 135 | 93 | 5D | ] |
  | 1010111111 | 136 | 94 | 5E | ^ |
  | 101101101 | 137 | 95 | 5F | _ |
  | Varicode | Oct | Dec | Hex | Glyph |
  | 1011011111 | 140 | 96 | 60 | ' |
  | 1011 | 141 | 97 | 61 | a |
  | 1011111 | 142 | 98 | 62 | b |
  | 101111 | 143 | 99 | 63 | c |
  | 101101 | 144 | 100 | 64 | d |
  | 11 | 145 | 101 | 65 | e |
  | 111101 | 146 | 102 | 66 | f |
  | 1011011 | 147 | 103 | 67 | g |
  | 101011 | 150 | 104 | 68 | h |
  | 1101 | 151 | 105 | 69 | i |
  | 111101011 | 152 | 106 | 6A | j |
  | 10111111 | 153 | 107 | 6B | k |
  | 11011 | 154 | 108 | 6C | l |
  | 111011 | 155 | 109 | 6D | m |
  | 1111 | 156 | 110 | 6E | n |
  | 111 | 157 | 111 | 6F | o |
  | 111111 | 160 | 112 | 70 | p |
  | 110111111 | 161 | 113 | 71 | q |
  | 10101 | 162 | 114 | 72 | r |
  | 10111 | 163 | 115 | 73 | s |
  | 101 | 164 | 116 | 74 | t |
  | 110111 | 165 | 117 | 75 | u |
  | 1111011 | 166 | 118 | 76 | v |
  | 1101011 | 167 | 119 | 77 | w |
  | 11011111 | 170 | 120 | 78 | x |
  | 1011101 | 171 | 121 | 79 | y |
  | 111010101 | 172 | 122 | 7A | z |
  | 1010110111 | 173 | 123 | 7B | { |
  | 110111011 | 174 | 124 | 7C | | |
  | 1010110101 | 175 | 125 | 7D | } |
  | 1011010111 | 176 | 126 | 7E | ~ |
  
  ### Character lengths
  
  Beginning with the single-bit code "1", valid varicode values may be formed by prefixing a "1" or "10" to a shorter code. Thus, the number of codes of length n is equal to the Fibonacci number $F_n.$ Varicode uses the 88 values of lengths up to 9 bits, and 40 of the 55 codes of length 10.
  
  As transmitted, the codes are two bits longer due to the trailing delimiter 00.
  
  ASCII characters by varicode length :
  
  | Bits | Codes | Characters |
  | - | - | - |
  | 1 | 1 | SP |
  | 2 | 1 | e |
  | 3 | 2 | o t |
  | 4 | 3 | a i n |
  | 5 | 5 | LF CR l r s |
  | 6 | 8 | - c d f h m p u |
  | 7 | 13 | , . = A E I S T b g v w y |
  | 8 | 21 | HT ( ) 0 1 2 3 : B C D F G L M N O P R k x |
  | 9 | 34 | ! " # $ ' * + / 4 5 6 7 8 9 ; < > H J K Q U V W X Y [ \ ] _ j q z | |
  | 10 | 40 | NUL SOH STX ETX EOT ENQ ACK BEL BS VT FF SO SI DLE DC1 DC2 DC3 DC4 NAK SYN ETB CAN EOM SUB ESC FS GS RS US % & ? @ Z ^ ` { } ~ DEL |
  