Re: A stupid text trick - Example of the redundancy of English text

From: Ben Mord (benmord_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 09/17/03 

Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 18:39:05 -0400

"John A. Malley" <102667.2235@compuserve.com> wrote in message
news:3F677833.3080907@compuserve.com...
> This is such a marvelous example of English language entropy/character I
> must share it with sci.crypt. A friend sent me this today:
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject: Dslyecixs taek haret
>
> Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deson't mttaer in
> waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht
> frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl
> mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do
> not raed ervey lteetr by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Isn't that great? :-)
>
> Native English speaker/readers should have no trouble parsing the text
> because of the redundancy of printed English. Only the first and last
> letters of each word remain in their expected positions.
>
> John A. Malley
> 102667.2235@compuserve.com
>

One use: frustrating full-text indexers. Full-text indexing engines could
(and no doubt will) become more intelligent in how they compensate for
typos. But until then...

Ben

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