  Algorithms based on multiple decoding attempts of Reed-Solomon (RS) codes
have recently attracted new attention. Choosing decoding candidates based on
rate-distortion (R-D) theory, as proposed previously by the authors, currently
provides the best performance-versus-complexity trade-off. In this paper, an
analysis based on the rate-distortion exponent (RDE) is used to directly
minimize the exponential decay rate of the error probability. This enables
rigorous bounds on the error probability for finite-length RS codes and leads
to modest performance gains. As a byproduct, a numerical method is derived that
computes the rate-distortion exponent for independent non-identical sources.
Analytical results are given for errors/erasures decoding.
