Xref: utzoo comp.text:7948 comp.text.tex:5155 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!edcogsci!rda From: rda@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Robert Dale) Newsgroups: comp.text,comp.text.tex Subject: Re: word count on latex document Message-ID: <3714@scott.ed.ac.uk> Date: 3 Feb 91 12:51:15 GMT References: <5317@gara.une.oz.au> <3635@scott.ed.ac.uk> Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK Lines: 26 spqr@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Sebastian Rahtz) writes: >In article <3635@scott.ed.ac.uk> rda@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Robert Dale) writes: > 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 -- >LaTeX has no idea how many words were output. What is a `word'? LaTeX >outputs a description of a page composed of a series of glyphs. LaTeX >is not a word-processor! > >The exisiting detex and delatex programs do a good enough job for >spelling checkers, so I assume word counts would work OK The version of detex we run is, of course, useful, but doesn't address the problems that I mentioned in my response: doing a word count on a [La]TeX file is the wrong time to do it, since the number of "words" that appears in the source file need bear no relation to the number of "words" that will appear in the text. Running a word count on the output of a dvivdu would be better. R -- Robert Dale Phone: +44 31 650 4416 | University of Edinburgh UUCP: ...!uunet!mcvax!ukc!its63b!cogsci!rda | Centre for Cognitive Science ARPA: rda%cogsci.ed.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk | 2 Buccleuch Place JANET: rda@uk.ac.ed.cogsci or R.Dale@uk.ac.ed | Edinburgh EH8 9LW Scotland