We show that the Feng-Rao bound for dual codes and a similar bound by
Andersen and Geil [H.E. Andersen and O. Geil, Evaluation codes from order
domain theory, Finite Fields Appl., 14 (2008), pp. 92-123] for primary codes
are consequences of each other. This implies that the Feng-Rao decoding
algorithm can be applied to decode primary codes up to half their designed
minimum distance. The technique applies to any linear code for which
information on well-behaving pairs is available. Consequently we are able to
decode efficiently a large class of codes for which no non-trivial decoding
algorithm was previously known. Among those are important families of
multivariate polynomial codes. Matsumoto and Miura in [R. Matsumoto and S.
Miura, On the Feng-Rao bound for the L-construction of algebraic geometry
codes, IEICE Trans. Fundamentals, E83-A (2000), pp. 926-930] (See also [P.
Beelen and T. H{\o}holdt, The decoding of algebraic geometry codes, in Advances
in algebraic geometry codes, pp. 49-98]) derived from the Feng-Rao bound a
bound for primary one-point algebraic geometric codes and showed how to decode
up to what is guaranteed by their bound. The exposition by Matsumoto and Miura
requires the use of differentials which was not needed in [Andersen and Geil
2008]. Nevertheless we demonstrate a very strong connection between Matsumoto
and Miura's bound and Andersen and Geil's bound when applied to primary
one-point algebraic geometric codes.Comment: elsarticle.cls, 23 pages, no figure. Version 3 added citations to the
works by I.M. Duursma and R. Pellikaa
