Unix Dictionaries

dave at sq.UUCP dave at sq.UUCP
Fri Jan 30 04:45:45 AEST 1987


In article <135 at vianet.UUCP> devine at vianet.UUCP writes:
>> In article <2828 at brl-adm.ARPA> dndobrin at athena.MIT.EDU writes:
>> >Does anyone out there know where the 4.x or System V dictionaries come from?
>
>In article <1987Jan22.110150.29415 at sq.uucp>, dave at sq.UUCP writes:
>> It makes me wonder too, when words like the following pass spell!
>> [list of misspelled words deleted]
>
>  Back around 1980 I wrote a spell check program for VAX/VMS.  To create
>the dictionary I first gathered 100's of files to get the words.  Later
>I copied the UNIX spelling list from a Version 7 machine.  That dictionary
>was *loaded* with many misspelled words!

The list of words that I posted above [deleted] are not contained
in /usr/dict/words they are probably generated by suffix/prefix
algorithms that spell(1) and kindred use. Note that the words
are found misspelled by SYS V spell(1). Sun Unix 3.0 spell is the
command under fire.

Another attribute about the words are that they are all words that
exist in the dictionary if rot13'ed.

This line :
I sbefbbx my zvyy before I dropped my fgnynpgvgr in the fbccvat stream.
rot13'd is:
V forsook zl mill orsber V qebccrq zl stalactite va gur sopping fgernz.
The first line passes spell.
The second catches fgernz gur orsber qebccrq.

					David R. Seaman
------
{utai,utzoo}!sq!dave
dave at sq.utoronto.bitnet

SoftQuad Inc. (home of sqtroff)
720 Spadina Ave
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(416) 963-8337



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