mainwin 100 20

    'In$ ="aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaccbbbbbbbbbbbbbbba" ' testing...
    In$ ="WWWWWWWWWWWWBWWWWWWWWWWWWBBBWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWBWWWWWWWWWWWWWW"
    '   Out$= "12W1B12W3B24W1B14W"

    Out$ =Encoded$( In$)
    Inv$ =Decoded$( Out$)

    print " Supplied string ="; In$
    Print " RLE version     ="; Out$
    print " Decoded back to ="; Inv$

    end

    function Encoded$( k$)
        r$    =""
        r     =1
        for i =2 to len( k$)
            prev$   =mid$( k$, i -1, 1)
            c$      =mid$( k$, i,    1)
            if c$ =prev$ then   '   entering a run of this character
                r =r +1
            else                '   it occurred only once
                r$ =r$ +str$( r) +prev$
                r =1
            end if
        next i
        r$ =r$ +str$( r) +c$
        Encoded$ =r$
    end function

    function Decoded$( k$)
        r$ =""
        v  =0
        for i =1 to len( k$)
            i$ =mid$( k$, i, 1)
            if instr( "0123456789", i$) then
                v =v *10 +val( i$)
            else
                for m =1 to v
                    r$ =r$ +i$
                next m
                v =0
            end if
        next i
        Decoded$ =r$
    end function