Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC840302); site ttds.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!gatech!seismo!mcvax!enea!ttds!arndt
From: arndt@ttds.UUCP (Arndt Jonasson)
Newsgroups: net.internat
Subject: Re: Hyphenation
Message-ID: <1053@ttds.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 16-Nov-85 02:33:16 EST
Article-I.D.: ttds.1053
Posted: Sat Nov 16 02:33:16 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Nov-85 07:04:39 EST
References: <471@harvard.ARPA> <773@mmintl.UUCP>
Reply-To: arndt@ttds.UUCP (Arndt Jonasson)
Distribution: net
Organization: The Royal Inst. of Techn., Stockholm
Lines: 23

In article <773@mmintl.UUCP> franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) writes:
>In article <471@harvard.ARPA> kosower@harvard.ARPA (David A. Kosower) writes:
>>There is, for 
>>example, a large body of knowledge that has been built up over the years
>>on the proper and elegant way to handle hyphenation automatically
>>in English.  There are a variety of algorithms and methods that
>>text formatters use.
>
>Yes, and none of them are any good.  Have you seen the things those
>algorithms do?  The only successful hyphenation algorithm is to look
>the word up in a dictionary.

Isn't the hyphenation method used in Knuth's TeX rather good? Most 
algorithms used in e.g. newspapers are intolerably bad, though. There are a few
basic rules, enhanced by many exceptions. Often when hyphenating a word,
although the basic rules are quite appropriate, some exception rule
(or no rule at all, it seems) is used instead.

(Another thing needed is an algorithmic for where to put commas in a sentence
in Swedish. Swedish journalists haven't the faintest notion what the purpose
of a comma is.)

Arndt Jonasson