University of Virginia Library

Search this document 


  

expand section 
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 
  
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 

collapse section 
  
  
  
  
  

223

Page 223

The Second Program

Once the proofreading is completed and the corrected cards inserted into the deck, an alphabetical word-list may then be generated. Whereas the first program gave in output only a list of errors which it found, this program could give an alphabetical list of every combination of key-strikes in the work (the machine does not think in terms of 'words'; it recognizes combinations of key-strikes bounded by blank spaces), along with a frequency count of each item. The frequency-list is what Larry D. Benson calls "the normal by-product of a machine-produced concordance,"[8] and is so easy to produce that one should appear in every computer-assisted concordance. A quick proofreading of this list may turn up errors not caught in the oral proofreading.