4 Jan
2021
4 Jan
'21
8:11 p.m.
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(a)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(a)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(a)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(a)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
>
>