ABCreate -- An add-on for Instant Text
| Re: New software that works with Instant Text -- Mike DeTuri | |||
| Posted by Jean Ichbiah ® , Fri, Jan 16, 2004, 21:32:10 | Reply | Top | Forum |
Sorting words by frequencies is a subject Mike and I have discussed for many years without finding a good solution until now.
Most of the difficulty is doing frequency ordering for Words in the Word Advisory itself. The reason is that it conflicts with the logic of "proximity" that is used in the Word Advisory. To understand this logic, see what happens when you type epg:
 |  |
All entries start with an e. The first three have a p at position 2 and a g at position 4. The next three entries have a p at position 3 and then the g is at increasing distances: at the positions 8, 10, and 12, as shown in the right image.
With the proximity logic, it it not quite clear what superimposing frequencies would do. It would decide on the relative order of epigastric, epigastrium, and epiglottis. On the other hand it would not affect the order of exposing, explaining, and experiencing. Altogether, it does not appear to be worth the effort.
Mike DeTuri's ABCreate avoids the problem of these conflicting requirements by putting these words as entries of the Phrase section. Instant Text allows ordering of entries of th Phrase section and consequently the word order created by ABCreate can be used there.
Who is this for? My own guess is that it is for those who use a word approach more than a phrase approach, as the words will occupy some lines. Possibly also for those who use a large number of advisory lines. But this is a question better left for Mike to answer.
In any case, Instant Text can accommodate either approach. I can even see using a mixed approach with frequent words being in the Phrase advisory while keeping others in the Word advisory. ABCreate is flexible enough for this as it allows you to specify the minimum frequency of words to be retained.
Jean Ichbiah
| Edit | Reply | Where? | | Original Message | Top | Current page | Author |
|