This is bluntly stated...but true. If for nothing else but space conservation, even relatively accessible papers and books need to constrain how fully self-con

This is bluntly stated...but true. If for nothing else but space conservation, even relatively accessible papers and books need to constrain how fully self-contained they are. Most advanced topics have prerequisites - in this case, you should really know probability (and therefore calculus/analysis) well before tackling information theory. Linear algebra will also be required if you want to do anything practical with information theory, like error correcting codes. Striking balance between full exposition and reasonable length can be tricky. You could make this paper fully accessible, but it would be significantly longer for questionable benefit. Most authors are not, in fact, good writers of pedagogical material. This is especially the case if they write beyond their specialization. It turns out it's generally better to go through several more compact and focused resources than one monolithic one.