Abstract: A system for compressing digital data maintains a code table of plaintext symbols at a transmitting location. Blocks of plaintext symbols in a message are encoded using the code table which table is updated using an update algorithm. The codes for those blocks are transmitted to a receiving location where a second code table is maintained. At the receiving location, the transmitted symbols are decoded using that second code table. That code table is also updated by applying to the plaintext symbols recovered during the decoding process the same update algorithm used at the transmitting location so that the two code tables are the same at any given point in the transmission.