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* Re: [TUHS] Question
@ 2021-01-03 20:23 M Douglas McIlroy
  2021-01-04  8:58 ` Ed Bradford
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 12+ messages in thread
From: M Douglas McIlroy @ 2021-01-03 20:23 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: tuhs, egbegb2

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> I was a BTL person for 8 years between 1976 and 1984. During
> that time there was a spelling corrector that was better than
> anything I see today. There was a concept of "spelling distance"
> that corrected a whole bunch of stuff that even today cannot be >
corrected.

> Who in that era worked on spelling correction at BTL. I was at
> Columbus BTL (1976-1979) and Whippany BTL (1979-1984).

Peter Nelson made an interface to spell(1) that showed putative errors in
context. I believe it could suggest corrections. I remember the project; I
installed hooks for it in spell(1). I don't remember the date, but it would
probably not have been early enough for you to have used it in Columbus.

If there's a chance that Peter's program is the one you remember
and you'd like to get in touch with him, I can give you his
email address.

Doug

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* Re: [TUHS] Question
  2021-01-03 20:23 [TUHS] Question M Douglas McIlroy
@ 2021-01-04  8:58 ` Ed Bradford
  2021-01-04  9:07   ` Rob Pike
  2021-01-04  9:08   ` arnold
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 12+ messages in thread
From: Ed Bradford @ 2021-01-04  8:58 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: M Douglas McIlroy; +Cc: UNIX Heritage Society

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Thank you for responding. My recollection is that one of your
folks put the spelling corrector into the shell so when I typed
the wrong letters for a directory or file, the spelling correct
would help. It was particularly noticible in the "chdir - cd" shell
command. Do you recall any such person and if so, did he (and it
was a he) use Peter's work?

There was a distance algorithm that was far better than anything I've seen
since. Yes, please send me Peter's contact information.

I am

Ed Bradford, Ph.D. Physics, retired from IBM
Pflugerville,TX
egbegb2@gmail.com

PS: We chatted sometime in 1980 or so about
adding database capabilities to the interactive
environment. I was interested in adding it to
the Bourne Shell at the time.

On Sun, Jan 3, 2021 at 2:23 PM M Douglas McIlroy <
m.douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu> wrote:

> > I was a BTL person for 8 years between 1976 and 1984. During
> > that time there was a spelling corrector that was better than
> > anything I see today. There was a concept of "spelling distance"
> > that corrected a whole bunch of stuff that even today cannot be >
> corrected.
>
> > Who in that era worked on spelling correction at BTL. I was at
> > Columbus BTL (1976-1979) and Whippany BTL (1979-1984).
>
> Peter Nelson made an interface to spell(1) that showed putative errors in
> context. I believe it could suggest corrections. I remember the project; I
> installed hooks for it in spell(1). I don't remember the date, but it would
> probably not have been early enough for you to have used it in Columbus.
>
> If there's a chance that Peter's program is the one you remember
> and you'd like to get in touch with him, I can give you his
> email address.
>
> Doug
>


-- 
Advice is judged by results, not by intentions.
  Cicero

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* Re: [TUHS] Question
  2021-01-04  8:58 ` Ed Bradford
@ 2021-01-04  9:07   ` Rob Pike
  2021-01-04  9:12     ` Niklas Karlsson
  2021-01-04 14:11     ` Clem Cole
  2021-01-04  9:08   ` arnold
  1 sibling, 2 replies; 12+ messages in thread
From: Rob Pike @ 2021-01-04  9:07 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Ed Bradford; +Cc: UNIX Heritage Society

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That was done by Tom Duff, I believe before he came to Bell Labs. I might
have brought the idea with me from Toronto. The code, or at least a simple
version of it, is in The Unix Programming Environment starting around page
208. We credit Tom in the endnotes for the chapter.

-rob


On Mon, Jan 4, 2021 at 8:00 PM Ed Bradford <egbegb2@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thank you for responding. My recollection is that one of your
> folks put the spelling corrector into the shell so when I typed
> the wrong letters for a directory or file, the spelling correct
> would help. It was particularly noticible in the "chdir - cd" shell
> command. Do you recall any such person and if so, did he (and it
> was a he) use Peter's work?
>
> There was a distance algorithm that was far better than anything I've seen
> since. Yes, please send me Peter's contact information.
>
> I am
>
> Ed Bradford, Ph.D. Physics, retired from IBM
> Pflugerville,TX
> egbegb2@gmail.com
>
> PS: We chatted sometime in 1980 or so about
> adding database capabilities to the interactive
> environment. I was interested in adding it to
> the Bourne Shell at the time.
>
> On Sun, Jan 3, 2021 at 2:23 PM M Douglas McIlroy <
> m.douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu> wrote:
>
>> > I was a BTL person for 8 years between 1976 and 1984. During
>> > that time there was a spelling corrector that was better than
>> > anything I see today. There was a concept of "spelling distance"
>> > that corrected a whole bunch of stuff that even today cannot be >
>> corrected.
>>
>> > Who in that era worked on spelling correction at BTL. I was at
>> > Columbus BTL (1976-1979) and Whippany BTL (1979-1984).
>>
>> Peter Nelson made an interface to spell(1) that showed putative errors in
>> context. I believe it could suggest corrections. I remember the project; I
>> installed hooks for it in spell(1). I don't remember the date, but it would
>> probably not have been early enough for you to have used it in Columbus.
>>
>> If there's a chance that Peter's program is the one you remember
>> and you'd like to get in touch with him, I can give you his
>> email address.
>>
>> Doug
>>
>
>
> --
> Advice is judged by results, not by intentions.
>   Cicero
>
>

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* Re: [TUHS] Question
  2021-01-04  8:58 ` Ed Bradford
  2021-01-04  9:07   ` Rob Pike
@ 2021-01-04  9:08   ` arnold
  1 sibling, 0 replies; 12+ messages in thread
From: arnold @ 2021-01-04  9:08 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: m.douglas.mcilroy, egbegb2; +Cc: tuhs

The spelling corrector in the shell rings vague bell. I think
it's in the 8th or 9th edition Bourne shell. You should be able to
find those in the archives.

Geoff Collyer has a modern port of the V9 shell at
http://www.collyer.net/who/geoff/v9sh.tar.

HTH,

Arnold

Ed Bradford <egbegb2@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thank you for responding. My recollection is that one of your
> folks put the spelling corrector into the shell so when I typed
> the wrong letters for a directory or file, the spelling correct
> would help. It was particularly noticible in the "chdir - cd" shell
> command. Do you recall any such person and if so, did he (and it
> was a he) use Peter's work?
>
> There was a distance algorithm that was far better than anything I've seen
> since. Yes, please send me Peter's contact information.
>
> I am
>
> Ed Bradford, Ph.D. Physics, retired from IBM
> Pflugerville,TX
> egbegb2@gmail.com
>
> PS: We chatted sometime in 1980 or so about
> adding database capabilities to the interactive
> environment. I was interested in adding it to
> the Bourne Shell at the time.
>
> On Sun, Jan 3, 2021 at 2:23 PM M Douglas McIlroy <
> m.douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu> wrote:
>
> > > I was a BTL person for 8 years between 1976 and 1984. During
> > > that time there was a spelling corrector that was better than
> > > anything I see today. There was a concept of "spelling distance"
> > > that corrected a whole bunch of stuff that even today cannot be >
> > corrected.
> >
> > > Who in that era worked on spelling correction at BTL. I was at
> > > Columbus BTL (1976-1979) and Whippany BTL (1979-1984).
> >
> > Peter Nelson made an interface to spell(1) that showed putative errors in
> > context. I believe it could suggest corrections. I remember the project; I
> > installed hooks for it in spell(1). I don't remember the date, but it would
> > probably not have been early enough for you to have used it in Columbus.
> >
> > If there's a chance that Peter's program is the one you remember
> > and you'd like to get in touch with him, I can give you his
> > email address.
> >
> > Doug
> >
>
>
> -- 
> Advice is judged by results, not by intentions.
>   Cicero

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 12+ messages in thread

* Re: [TUHS] Question
  2021-01-04  9:07   ` Rob Pike
@ 2021-01-04  9:12     ` Niklas Karlsson
  2021-01-04 14:11     ` Clem Cole
  1 sibling, 0 replies; 12+ messages in thread
From: Niklas Karlsson @ 2021-01-04  9:12 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Rob Pike; +Cc: UNIX Heritage Society

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Ah, he of the infamous Device? Interesting.

Niklas

Den mån 4 jan. 2021 kl 10:08 skrev Rob Pike <robpike@gmail.com>:

> That was done by Tom Duff, I believe before he came to Bell Labs. I might
> have brought the idea with me from Toronto. The code, or at least a simple
> version of it, is in The Unix Programming Environment starting around page
> 208. We credit Tom in the endnotes for the chapter.
>
> -rob
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 4, 2021 at 8:00 PM Ed Bradford <egbegb2@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Thank you for responding. My recollection is that one of your
>> folks put the spelling corrector into the shell so when I typed
>> the wrong letters for a directory or file, the spelling correct
>> would help. It was particularly noticible in the "chdir - cd" shell
>> command. Do you recall any such person and if so, did he (and it
>> was a he) use Peter's work?
>>
>> There was a distance algorithm that was far better than anything I've seen
>> since. Yes, please send me Peter's contact information.
>>
>> I am
>>
>> Ed Bradford, Ph.D. Physics, retired from IBM
>> Pflugerville,TX
>> egbegb2@gmail.com
>>
>> PS: We chatted sometime in 1980 or so about
>> adding database capabilities to the interactive
>> environment. I was interested in adding it to
>> the Bourne Shell at the time.
>>
>> On Sun, Jan 3, 2021 at 2:23 PM M Douglas McIlroy <
>> m.douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> > I was a BTL person for 8 years between 1976 and 1984. During
>>> > that time there was a spelling corrector that was better than
>>> > anything I see today. There was a concept of "spelling distance"
>>> > that corrected a whole bunch of stuff that even today cannot be >
>>> corrected.
>>>
>>> > Who in that era worked on spelling correction at BTL. I was at
>>> > Columbus BTL (1976-1979) and Whippany BTL (1979-1984).
>>>
>>> Peter Nelson made an interface to spell(1) that showed putative errors
>>> in context. I believe it could suggest corrections. I remember the project;
>>> I installed hooks for it in spell(1). I don't remember the date, but it
>>> would probably not have been early enough for you to have used it in
>>> Columbus.
>>>
>>> If there's a chance that Peter's program is the one you remember
>>> and you'd like to get in touch with him, I can give you his
>>> email address.
>>>
>>> Doug
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Advice is judged by results, not by intentions.
>>   Cicero
>>
>>

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* Re: [TUHS] Question
  2021-01-04  9:07   ` Rob Pike
  2021-01-04  9:12     ` Niklas Karlsson
@ 2021-01-04 14:11     ` Clem Cole
  2021-01-04 15:39       ` John P. Linderman
  1 sibling, 1 reply; 12+ messages in thread
From: Clem Cole @ 2021-01-04 14:11 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Rob Pike, M Douglas McIlroy; +Cc: UNIX Heritage Society

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I also remember a program that was kicking around WH and MH called grope(1)
that IIRC used the algorithms in the code for the 411 operators.   Was that
related?  I do remember is that had a separate dictionary from spell and
ispell that was stored in /usr/lib/grope/[a-z]/mumble
ᐧ

On Mon, Jan 4, 2021 at 4:08 AM Rob Pike <robpike@gmail.com> wrote:

> That was done by Tom Duff, I believe before he came to Bell Labs. I might
> have brought the idea with me from Toronto. The code, or at least a simple
> version of it, is in The Unix Programming Environment starting around page
> 208. We credit Tom in the endnotes for the chapter.
>
> -rob
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 4, 2021 at 8:00 PM Ed Bradford <egbegb2@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Thank you for responding. My recollection is that one of your
>> folks put the spelling corrector into the shell so when I typed
>> the wrong letters for a directory or file, the spelling correct
>> would help. It was particularly noticible in the "chdir - cd" shell
>> command. Do you recall any such person and if so, did he (and it
>> was a he) use Peter's work?
>>
>> There was a distance algorithm that was far better than anything I've seen
>> since. Yes, please send me Peter's contact information.
>>
>> I am
>>
>> Ed Bradford, Ph.D. Physics, retired from IBM
>> Pflugerville,TX
>> egbegb2@gmail.com
>>
>> PS: We chatted sometime in 1980 or so about
>> adding database capabilities to the interactive
>> environment. I was interested in adding it to
>> the Bourne Shell at the time.
>>
>> On Sun, Jan 3, 2021 at 2:23 PM M Douglas McIlroy <
>> m.douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> > I was a BTL person for 8 years between 1976 and 1984. During
>>> > that time there was a spelling corrector that was better than
>>> > anything I see today. There was a concept of "spelling distance"
>>> > that corrected a whole bunch of stuff that even today cannot be >
>>> corrected.
>>>
>>> > Who in that era worked on spelling correction at BTL. I was at
>>> > Columbus BTL (1976-1979) and Whippany BTL (1979-1984).
>>>
>>> Peter Nelson made an interface to spell(1) that showed putative errors
>>> in context. I believe it could suggest corrections. I remember the project;
>>> I installed hooks for it in spell(1). I don't remember the date, but it
>>> would probably not have been early enough for you to have used it in
>>> Columbus.
>>>
>>> If there's a chance that Peter's program is the one you remember
>>> and you'd like to get in touch with him, I can give you his
>>> email address.
>>>
>>> Doug
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Advice is judged by results, not by intentions.
>>   Cicero
>>
>>

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* Re: [TUHS] Question
  2021-01-04 14:11     ` Clem Cole
@ 2021-01-04 15:39       ` John P. Linderman
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 12+ messages in thread
From: John P. Linderman @ 2021-01-04 15:39 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Clem Cole; +Cc: UNIX Heritage Society

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I still have the grope source. It starts with

/**************************************************
 * GROPE - spelling correction - Bill Taylor - Dept 43231
 *
 * The information contained herein is for the use of BELL LABORATORIES
 * and is not for publication.  (See GEI 13.9-3)
 ***************************************************/

but I have been told by people I trust that the algorithm is really due to
Tom Szymanski. I have used the algorithm for matching city and street names
from the US Postal Service, and it did very well, quite a bit better than
the Levenshtein algorithm, for that application. It worked well for
"ordinary" dictionary matching, but would have been ghastly for things like
approximate matching of DNA base pairs.

Don't get me started about automating directory lookup. That was my first
BTL project in the Business Information System division in the early 70s.
It was obviously superior to paper records, and we had no trouble pitching
up the corporate ladder until we got to the executive director level. In a
blaze of insight, he asserted that microfilm had stolen the market,
whereupon our director executed a light-speed 180 about supporting the
project, and it died. The executive director later became Vice President of
Electronic Information Systems at Western Electric.

On Mon, Jan 4, 2021 at 9:13 AM Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com> wrote:

> I also remember a program that was kicking around WH and MH called
> grope(1) that IIRC used the algorithms in the code for the 411 operators.
>  Was that related?  I do remember is that had a separate dictionary from
> spell and ispell that was stored in /usr/lib/grope/[a-z]/mumble
> ᐧ
>
> On Mon, Jan 4, 2021 at 4:08 AM Rob Pike <robpike@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> That was done by Tom Duff, I believe before he came to Bell Labs. I might
>> have brought the idea with me from Toronto. The code, or at least a simple
>> version of it, is in The Unix Programming Environment starting around page
>> 208. We credit Tom in the endnotes for the chapter.
>>
>> -rob
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 4, 2021 at 8:00 PM Ed Bradford <egbegb2@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Thank you for responding. My recollection is that one of your
>>> folks put the spelling corrector into the shell so when I typed
>>> the wrong letters for a directory or file, the spelling correct
>>> would help. It was particularly noticible in the "chdir - cd" shell
>>> command. Do you recall any such person and if so, did he (and it
>>> was a he) use Peter's work?
>>>
>>> There was a distance algorithm that was far better than anything I've
>>> seen
>>> since. Yes, please send me Peter's contact information.
>>>
>>> I am
>>>
>>> Ed Bradford, Ph.D. Physics, retired from IBM
>>> Pflugerville,TX
>>> egbegb2@gmail.com
>>>
>>> PS: We chatted sometime in 1980 or so about
>>> adding database capabilities to the interactive
>>> environment. I was interested in adding it to
>>> the Bourne Shell at the time.
>>>
>>> On Sun, Jan 3, 2021 at 2:23 PM M Douglas McIlroy <
>>> m.douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>>> > I was a BTL person for 8 years between 1976 and 1984. During
>>>> > that time there was a spelling corrector that was better than
>>>> > anything I see today. There was a concept of "spelling distance"
>>>> > that corrected a whole bunch of stuff that even today cannot be >
>>>> corrected.
>>>>
>>>> > Who in that era worked on spelling correction at BTL. I was at
>>>> > Columbus BTL (1976-1979) and Whippany BTL (1979-1984).
>>>>
>>>> Peter Nelson made an interface to spell(1) that showed putative errors
>>>> in context. I believe it could suggest corrections. I remember the project;
>>>> I installed hooks for it in spell(1). I don't remember the date, but it
>>>> would probably not have been early enough for you to have used it in
>>>> Columbus.
>>>>
>>>> If there's a chance that Peter's program is the one you remember
>>>> and you'd like to get in touch with him, I can give you his
>>>> email address.
>>>>
>>>> Doug
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Advice is judged by results, not by intentions.
>>>   Cicero
>>>
>>>

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* Re: [TUHS] Question
@ 2021-01-10  2:43 Rudi Blom
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 12+ messages in thread
From: Rudi Blom @ 2021-01-10  2:43 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: tuhs

From output of 'what' on /bin/sh in SCO UNIX 3.2V4.2

- spname.c 23.2 91/02/21

Cheers,
uncle rubl

>Date: Sat, 09 Jan 2021 03:39:16 -05
>From: Norman Wilson <norman@oclsc.org>
>To: tuhs@tuhs.org
>Subject: Re: [TUHS] Question
>Message-ID: <1610181560.23999.for-standards-violators@oclsc.org>
>
>Rob Pike, re the spelling corrector in V8 and later Research
>versions of sh:
>
> That was done by Tom Duff, I believe before he came to Bell Labs. I might
> have brought the idea with me from Toronto.
>
>Very likely, since you left it behind at Caltech as well; it was
>in sh on cithep (a hostname meaningless to many but rob will remember)
>when I arrived in 1980.
>
>It was in the version of p you left behind there as well.
>
>I can confirm that spname remained in the shell through V10
>(it's still in my copy), but it seems to have disappeared from p.
>
>Norman Wilson
>Toronto ON

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 12+ messages in thread

* Re: [TUHS] Question
  2021-01-09  8:39 Norman Wilson
@ 2021-01-09  8:50 ` Rob Pike
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 12+ messages in thread
From: Rob Pike @ 2021-01-09  8:50 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Norman Wilson; +Cc: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society

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Ah cithep, I remember you well!

-rob


On Sat, Jan 9, 2021 at 7:46 PM Norman Wilson <norman@oclsc.org> wrote:

> Rob Pike, re the spelling corrector in V8 and later Research
> versions of sh:
>
> > That was done by Tom Duff, I believe before he came to Bell Labs. I might
> > have brought the idea with me from Toronto.
>
> Very likely, since you left it behind at Caltech as well; it was
> in sh on cithep (a hostname meaningless to many but rob will remember)
> when I arrived in 1980.
>
> It was in the version of p you left behind there as well.
>
> I can confirm that spname remained in the shell through V10
> (it's still in my copy), but it seems to have disappeared from p.
>
> Norman Wilson
> Toronto ON
>

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* Re: [TUHS] Question
@ 2021-01-09  8:39 Norman Wilson
  2021-01-09  8:50 ` Rob Pike
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 12+ messages in thread
From: Norman Wilson @ 2021-01-09  8:39 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: tuhs

Rob Pike, re the spelling corrector in V8 and later Research
versions of sh:

> That was done by Tom Duff, I believe before he came to Bell Labs. I might
> have brought the idea with me from Toronto.

Very likely, since you left it behind at Caltech as well; it was
in sh on cithep (a hostname meaningless to many but rob will remember)
when I arrived in 1980.

It was in the version of p you left behind there as well.

I can confirm that spname remained in the shell through V10
(it's still in my copy), but it seems to have disappeared from p.

Norman Wilson
Toronto ON

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 12+ messages in thread

* Re: [TUHS] Question
@ 2021-01-05  4:36 Rudi Blom
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 12+ messages in thread
From: Rudi Blom @ 2021-01-05  4:36 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: tuhs

The spell check in 'cd' commands I remember from SCO UNIX 3.2

The 'sh' manual page has
    Spelling checker

    When using cd(C) the shell checks spelling. For example, if you change to
    a different directory using cd and misspell the directory name, the shell
    responds with an alternative spelling of an existing directory. Enter
    ``y'' and press <Return> (or just press <Return>) to change to the
    offered directory.  If the offered spelling is incorrect, enter ``n'',
    then retype the command line.  In this example the sh(C) response is
    boldfaced:

       $ cd /usr/spol/uucp
       cd /usr/spool/uucp?y
       ok

Cheers,
uncle rubl


>Date: Mon, 04 Jan 2021 02:08:09 -0700
>From: arnold@skeeve.com
>To: m.douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu, egbegb2@gmail.com
>Cc: tuhs@tuhs.org
>Subject: Re: [TUHS] Question
>Message-ID: <202101040908.104989TF022830@freefriends.org>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>The spelling corrector in the shell rings vague bell. I think
>it's in the 8th or 9th edition Bourne shell. You should be able to
>find those in the archives.
>
>Geoff Collyer has a modern port of the V9 shell at
>http://www.collyer.net/who/geoff/v9sh.tar.
>
>HTH,
.>
>Arnold

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 12+ messages in thread

* [TUHS] Question
@ 2021-01-03 10:13 Ed Bradford
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 12+ messages in thread
From: Ed Bradford @ 2021-01-03 10:13 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: TUHS main list

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I was a BTL person for 8 years between 1976 and 1984. During that time
there was a spelling corrector that was better than anything I see today.
There was a concept of "spelling distance" that corrected a whole bunch of
stuff that even today cannot be corrected.

Who in that era worked on spelling correction at BTL. I was at Columbus BTL
(1976-1979) and Whippany BTL (1979-1984).

Who ever did that stuff should patent it and sell it. Today there is
nothing like it.

-- 
Advice is judged by results, not by intentions.
  Cicero

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end of thread, other threads:[~2021-01-10  2:44 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 12+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2021-01-03 20:23 [TUHS] Question M Douglas McIlroy
2021-01-04  8:58 ` Ed Bradford
2021-01-04  9:07   ` Rob Pike
2021-01-04  9:12     ` Niklas Karlsson
2021-01-04 14:11     ` Clem Cole
2021-01-04 15:39       ` John P. Linderman
2021-01-04  9:08   ` arnold
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2021-01-10  2:43 Rudi Blom
2021-01-09  8:39 Norman Wilson
2021-01-09  8:50 ` Rob Pike
2021-01-05  4:36 Rudi Blom
2021-01-03 10:13 Ed Bradford

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