[TUHS] Question

M Douglas McIlroy m.douglas.mcilroy at dartmouth.edu
Mon Jan 4 06:23:15 AEST 2021


> 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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