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From: rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Problem with spell
Message-ID: <4842@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 10-Mar-87 09:54:46 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-adm.4842
Posted: Tue Mar 10 09:54:46 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 10-Mar-87 23:27:54 EST
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
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   millions was stopped by the stop list.  Why?  ons is a non-word which
   might be construed by spell as the plural of the valid word on.  Hence
   ons is in the stop list.  The stop list is used like the main list, with
   prefix and suffix strripping.  Hence millions is seen as a derivative
   (milli-ons, like milli-meters) of a word on the stop list and is stopped.
   Another one of my favorite stopped word is dishes (dis-hes, hes on stop
   list as spurious plural of he).  Also microbes, micro-bes.  There are thre
   or four others that I cannot remember at this late hour.

   There is really no solution, short of a total (and perhaps needed) rewrite
   of spell, a program that originated in the dark ages on a PDP without
   separate I & D space.  For an excellnt review of the theory & implementation
   of spell, see McIlroy, M. D. "Development of a Spelling List", IEEE Trans.
   Communications, Jan 1982, 91-99.  Also an article in the Programming Pearls
   column in comm ACM about a year ago.


Which is another reason why I don't believe in automated spelling programs.
Spell will also accept any legal prefix and suffix tacked onto any base
word, as in: day unday ununday dayest redisunmispresuffixernessize. Just
store *all* the words in the dictionary, or distribute an empty dictionary
and let people add their own words. Kind of like an adventure.

	(Root Boy) Jim "Just Say Yes" Cottrell	<rbj@icst-cmr.arpa>
	Why did Paul Simon name his album after Elvis Presley's house?