1. A method of quantum information processing in which logical qubits &verbar;0> L and &verbar;1> L are respectively encoded by different near orthogonal coherent states &verbar;&bgr;> and &verbar;&agr;>, where <&agr;&bgr;>&ap;0,&verbar;&agr;> and &verbar;&bgr;> being the computational basis states for the qubits.