15. A computer implemented method 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, 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.
15. A computer implemented method 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, 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. 19. The method of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise: generating a first code distribution of frequencies of groups of words each having the selected number of words, wherein the frequency of each of the groups comprises a sum of the frequencies of the words included in the group according to the word frequency distribution, wherein the symbols in the first code alphabet are constructed from the first code distribution, and wherein each symbol in the first code alphabet maps to the words in one of the groups and has a frequency of the group of words to which the symbol maps.