Interesting outline of how the Australian Dictionary is being built. Kelvin is always looking for extra help :-)
-----Forwarded Message----- > From: Kelvin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: Ken Foskey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Re: [SLUG] OpenOffice Australian Dictionary - work inprogress] > Date: 18 Mar 2003 09:00:21 +1100 > > Hi Ken, > > I'm not quite certain exactly what you meant in your statement as it is a > bit concise. > > However, I do think that what I am doing is actually what you are thinking. > > I have actually taken the GB dictionary, had Kevin Hendricks unmunch it to > give me the complete word list. > > Then I've used Microsoft spell check to check all the words. Some 12,000 or > around 10% were shown as incorrect and these were removed. (Quite time > consuming as I could not work out a way to automate this activity.) > > >From this I created a Valid list and an Invalid list of words. The Valid > list was used to create the current alpha Australian dictionary. > > The stage we are now at is getting people to contribute as that will spread > the work load. I suspect that not many people will acutally do anything > which is why I've put a one week time schedule. (No point waiting around). > > In the mean time Jean Hollis Weber has provided a list of Australian place > names which I will incorporate into the beta. I have removed all duplicates > from the place names list that are already in the alpha dictionary (keeping > in mind that case sensitivity is important in place names). > > I have gone back through the Invalid Word list and let the Microsoft spell > check suggest variations. This has produced around another 3000 unique words > from the 12000 invalid words. > > This week as I read online articles in the media I am copying and pasting > articles into Writer to perform spell checks against the alpha dictionary. > Any words marked as incorrect (excluding words which are people names or I > am not certain about) I am then collecting in a text file. > > At the end of the week I will be combining everyone's found words, removing > duplicates, testing against the alpha release of the dictionary and also > testing against the Microsoft spell checker. > > One test I would like to perform is to test the word list against another > dictionary which is not the Microsoft one, as there is no guarantee that > their dictionary is 100% correct either. This however is probably a bit of > over kill. > > False hits are still possible because I don't believe as I have said, that > the Microsoft dictionary is 100% correct. My experience is there are not > that many things that are perfect in this world ;-) > > I would like to think that once we have the Australian dictionary live, it > can evolve over time. That is incorrect words removed and new ones added. > It is better to have a good starting point than to have no starting point at > all. > > The good thing about a dictionary is that people can always add words to > their own custom dictionary if they are not happy. The bad thing about a > dictionary is if it has words which are not correctly spelt. > > If you haven't already given the Australian alpha dictionary a go, then you > may wish to do so. You will be surprised at how comprehensive it already is > as a result of being based on the GB dictionary. > > Kelvin > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Ken Foskey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Kelvin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2003 8:15 AM > Subject: Re: Re: [SLUG] OpenOffice Australian Dictionary - work inprogress] > -- Thanks KenF OpenOffice.org developer -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
