Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!panix!.POSTED.panix5.panix.com!qz!not-for-mail
From: Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com>
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: How Unix Spell Ran in 64kB RAM
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2025 00:23:44 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: Some absurd concept
Message-ID: <eli$2501231922@qaz.wtf>
References: <vmtmgl$1mcfb$1@dont-email.me> <vmukqo$1s5se$5@dont-email.me>
Injection-Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2025 00:23:44 -0000 (UTC)
Injection-Info: reader2.panix.com; posting-host="panix5.panix.com:166.84.1.5";
	logging-data="23851"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@panix.com"
User-Agent: Vectrex rn 2.1 (beta)
X-Liz: It's actually happened, the entire Internet is a massive game of Redcode
X-Motto: "Erosion of rights never seems to reverse itself." -- kenny@panix
X-US-Congress: Moronic Fucks.
X-Attribution: EtB
XFrom: is a real address
Encrypted: double rot-13
Bytes: 1966
Lines: 23

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