abet by bit sequences (codes), one code for each symbol, in
         a manner such that different symbols may be represented by bit
         sequences of different lengths, but a parser can always parse
         an encoded string unambiguously symbol-by-symbol.

         We define a prefix code in terms of a binary tree in which the
         two edges descending from each non-leaf node are labeled 0 and
         1 and in which the leaf nodes correspond one-for-one with (are
         labeled with) the symbol