I'm a bit rusty myself (all those small mistakes I made). I'm now more concerned with the engineering side of error correction (elegant implementations and more importantly a totally new class of dynamic error correction I have in another GitHub project). I can't recommend any good up-to-date textbook - haven't read any in long time.
No problem. Do you happen to have a source for the algorithm you explained, though? I recognize the parity-check matrix, but the rest I can't seem to find in any of the usual coding theory texts; usually, they treat erasures as part of the full RS decoding process.
The source of the algorithm I described is my mind. It's so elementary that I believe it is omnipresent but disguised by more complicated math, usually due to other ways to define RS codes.
I agree re. being disguised by complicated math. Although even if you think it's elementary, I encourage you to write it up somewhere, like a blog post. I'm sure there are people out there like me who would find it novel. :)
If I ever do use it or write about it, I'll make sure to cite you. Thanks again!
