Re: How Unix Spell Ran in 64kB RAM

From	Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com>
Newsgroups	comp.misc
Subject	Re: How Unix Spell Ran in 64kB RAM
Date	2025-01-24 00:23 +0000
Organization	Some absurd concept
Message-ID	<eli$2501231922@qaz.wtf> (permalink)
References	<vmtmgl$1mcfb$1@dont-email.me> <vmukqo$1s5se$5@dont-email.me>

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In comp.misc, Lawrence D'Oliveiro  <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
> On Thu, 23 Jan 2025 15:16:38 -0000 (UTC), Ben Collver wrote:
>> Instead of relying on generic compression techniques, he took advantage
>> of the properties of the data and developed a compression algorithm that
>> came within 0.03 bits of the theoretical limit of possible compression.
>> To this day, it remains unbeaten.
> All of which only worked for the English language (US).
> 
> What happened when they had to support other languages?

Pretty sure the answer is: The program was completely replaced. 
No one uses spell anymore, ispell or something else gets used.

When it was written, Unix' main use to the owning company was producing
phone books with the runoff tools. Those didn't need spell checking of
customer names or addresses, and so had very little text _to_ spell
check. 

Just because the solution doesn't make sense to use now, doesn't mean it
wasn't clever then.

Elijah
------
probably still works better than chapgpt

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How Unix Spell Ran in 64kB RAM Ben Collver <bencollver@tilde.pink> - 2025-01-23 15:16 +0000
  Re: How Unix Spell Ran in 64kB RAM Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-01-23 23:54 +0000
    Re: How Unix Spell Ran in 64kB RAM Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2025-01-24 00:23 +0000
      Re: How Unix Spell Ran in 64kB RAM Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-01-24 00:59 +0000
        Re: How Unix Spell Ran in 64kB RAM Anton Shepelev <anton.txt@g{oogle}mail.com> - 2025-01-24 13:16 +0300
          Re: How Unix Spell Ran in 64kB RAM Anton Shepelev <anton.txt@g{oogle}mail.com> - 2025-01-24 13:18 +0300
          Re: How Unix Spell Ran in 64kB RAM Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-01-25 00:46 +0000
            Re: How Unix Spell Ran in 64kB RAM Anton Shepelev <anton.txt@gmail.moc> - 2025-01-25 21:14 +0300
  Re: How Unix Spell Ran in 64kB RAM Salvador Mirzo <smirzo@example.com> - 2025-01-25 12:26 -0300
    Re: How Unix Spell Ran in 64kB RAM candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> - 2025-02-03 19:30 +0000

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