Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!ukc!stl!pac
From: pac@stl.stc.co.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: How do so many words fit in a dictionary/thesaurus?
Message-ID: <3374@stl.stc.co.uk>
Date: 12 Sep 90 14:24:03 GMT
Sender: news@stl.stc.co.uk
Reply-To: pac@stl.stc.co.uk ()
Organization: STC Technology Limited, London Road, Harlow, Essex, UK
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Can anyone give me a reference to the compression techniques used by the
dictionary/thesaurus applications and DAs.  Taking Microlytics claim about
Word Finder (220,000 words) it works out at about 1.6 bytes per word.
Presumably the portable calculator-like dictionaries that are available
use similar compression algorithms?

Any leads (by email) would help me as I am trying to find a way of
squeezing a medical reference database into a small handheld computer.
A discussion on the net about the algorithms would also be interesting,
although I've probably kicked this off in the wrong newsgroup.

Thanks,
        Paul Cooper 
Regards,
	Paul Cooper (pac@stl.stc.co.uk) - ICL Europe