When working with a linear code we specify together with the length of codewords and the dimension of the code its distance as well.
By knowing its distance, one can calculate its error detection and error correction capabilities. Are there any other cases when knowing the distance of the code can prove to be useful?
In case of calculating MLD in order to find out which codeword was sent, we calculate the distance between the received word and all possible codewords in the set of all codewords and choose the one that gives the minimum distance. In this instance, we do not use the information about the distance of the code but d(possible codeword, received). Or is there a way to actually use it in this situation as well?
A code is more powerful if it has a greater distance, as there is room for more errors between valid codewords.
When you correct an error, you simply jump to the nearest valid neighbor. If the distance is close to the code distance, you can suspect an unrecoverable error.