The Kolmogorov complexity, universal distribution, and coding theorem for generalized length functions

A function h(w) is said to be useful for the coding theorem if the coding theorem remains to be true when the lengths |w| of codewords w in it are replaced with h(w). For a codeword w=a₀a₁...a_m-1 of length m and an infinite sequence Q=(q₀, q₁, q₂, ...) of real numbers such that 0<q_n⩽½, let |w|_Q denote the value Σ_n=0^m-1 (if a_n =0 then -log₂q_n, else -log₂(1-q _n)), that is, -log₂, (the probability that flippings of coins generate x) assuming that the (i+1)th coin generates a tail (or 0) with probability q_i. It is known that if 0<lim inf_n→∞ q_n then |w|_Q is useful for the coding theorem and if lim_n→∞ q _n/(1/(2ⁿ))=0 then |w|_Q is not useful. We introduce several variations of the coding theorem and show sufficient conditions for h(w) not to be useful for these variations. The usefulness is also defined for the expressions that define the Kolmogorov complexity and the universal distribution. We consider the relation among the usefulness for the coding theorem, that for the Kolmogorov complexity, and that for the universal distribution