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From: rda@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Robert Dale)
Newsgroups: comp.text,comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: word count on latex document
Keywords: word count wc latex
Message-ID: <3635@scott.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 31 Jan 91 12:25:28 GMT
References: <5317@gara.une.oz.au>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
Lines: 25

ascott@gara.une.oz.au (Tony Scott STPG) writes:

>I need to count the number of words in a document that is
>built up of latex commands. Is there something available that will
>count words without taking into account words beginning with a
>backslash of those within a group such as
>\begin{picture}...\end{picture} etc.

I've often wished for such a thing, but it has always seemed to me
that this really ought to have been part of [La]TeX's functionality:
after all, only [La]TeX knows how many words were *really* output --
remember you have to distinguish between \begin{picture} and
\underline{some words}, and to be able to handle arbitrary text
substitution via macros.

I'd also be interested to know of any solutions -- perhaps doing the
word count on the output of dvi2ps might be easier (only 0.5 :-)?

R

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Robert Dale        Phone: +44 31 650 4416       | University of Edinburgh
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