Relativized codes (Q418759)

In [Tamkang J. Math 11, 59--66 (1980; Zbl 0456.68094)], \textit{T. Head} has considered unique decodability of formal languages in the case when the set of code words is not a code. The usefulness of such an approach has been documented, inter alia, by \textit{F. Burderi} and \textit{A. Restivo} [Discrete Math. Theor. Comput. Sci. 9, No. 2, 227--239 (2007; Zbl 1153.94005)] and \textit{K. Mahalingam} [Involution codes: with application to DNA strand design. University of South Florida (PhD Thesis) (2004)]. In this paper, the authors extend the idea of relativizing code concepts to restricted message spaces and propose a uniform approach to this problem. This leads to the relativization of the definitions of many well-known classes of codes. Finally, they study the mechanism of this relativization.