Abstract
Balancing sequences over a non-binary alphabet is
considered, where the algebraic sum of the components (also
known as the weight) is equal to some specific value. Various
schemes based on Knuth’s simple binary balancing algorithm
have been proposed. However, these have mostly assumed that
the prefix describing the balancing point in the algorithm can
easily be encoded. In this paper we show how non-binary Gray
codes can be used to generate these prefixes. Together with a
non-binary balancing algorithm, this forms a complete balancing
system with straightforward and efficient encoding/decoding.