  We introduce a complexity measure for symbolic sequences. Starting from a
segmentation procedure of the sequence, we define its complexity as the entropy
of the distribution of lengths of the domains of relatively uniform composition
in which the sequence is decomposed. We show that this quantity verifies the
properties usually required for a ``good'' complexity measure. In particular it
satisfies the one hump property, is super-additive and has the important
property of being dependent of the level of detail in which the sequence is
analyzed. Finally we apply it to the evaluation of the complexity profile of
some genetic sequences.
