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From: ForthNet@willett.pgh.pa.us (ForthNet articles from GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: other forth applications
Message-ID: <1733.UUL1.3#5129@willett.pgh.pa.us>
Date: 14 Sep 90 03:39:26 GMT
Organization: String, Scotch tape, and Paperclips.  (in Pgh, PA)
Lines: 37


 Date: 09-12-90 (00:46)              Number: 3761 (Echo)
   To: ZAFAR ESSAK                   Refer#: 3743
 From: KENNETH O'HESKIN                Read: NO
 Subj: SOUNDEX                       Status: PUBLIC MESSAGE

 ZE>Assuming I have not I have taken the above code and applied it to 2,0
 ZE>names from an existing database and have been examining the results.
 ZE>At the moment I am not sure exactly how this function can be useful.

         I havn't yet applied Soundex to any serious use, since its
         utility seems to contigent on two preconditions...
         (1) very large databases of proper nouns, and
         (2) unreliable methods of data entry, especially systems
             prone to misspellings due to operator error.

         Both conditions are more likely to occur in the corporate-
         governmental mainframe environments rather than on single-user
         microcomputers. Most of us probably have had the experience
         of our name being misspelled, say on a magazine label, and
         as this "sucker list" is sold to other databases, the error
         gets cloned and we start getting junk mail from all and sundry
         with the identical error.

         The data in that kind of environment may have been gathered
         over the phone, or taken from forms with little boxes far too
         small to print legibly in, and often the operator may be some
         underpaid drudge who has no motivation to do accurate work.
         Since an exact match may not yield a successful search, a
         Soundex type of pattern matching might get you in the ballpark.
 ---
  ~ EZ 1.26 ~ 

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