Webster's Second (234,936 word list) now ARPA-accessible

[James A. Woods]

#  The word "accident" should be erased from the dictionary.
	-- Isaac Bashevis Singer, 1978

     Loose ends:

	(1) The wordlist is just that, no definitions.  You'll
	    just have to wait until one of the copywronged databases
	    (Wang owns the rights for the Random House Dictionary)
	    shows up on one of those cute 550 MB digital CD ROMs.

	(2) It has been moved to the 'riacs-icarus.arpa' mail gateway
	    to soothe a swamped time-sharing CPU.  (Sorry, Dave!)

	(3) Four-to-one data compression is sub-optimal, I know.
	    (I used, in addition to the incremental decoder
	    [remember zippy.h, K.T.?], "compress -b12" so that
	    machines with tiny address space can unbutton the list.

	(4) Good luck if you use it as a spelling detector/corrector
	    list!  The pitfalls induced by this are nicely discussed
	    in M. D. McIlroy's "Development of a Spelling List", in
	    IEEE Trans. Commun., January 1982.

-- James A. Woods   {hplabs,ihnp4}!ames!jaw   (or jaw at riacs)