1. A computer program product for generating a code alphabet for use by a deployed program to determine codewords for words used in a computing system, wherein the codewords have an average codeword length less than a length of the words, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein that executes to perform operations, the operations comprising: providing a first code alphabet having a first number of symbols that provide variable length codings of the words; and generating a second code alphabet having a second number of symbols formed by merging the symbols in the first code alphabet, wherein the second code alphabet comprises the code alphabet used by the deployed program.