Saturday, January 19, 2008

Applied Probability: How To Write A Spelling Corrector In 21 Lines Of Python

Once again Bayes' Theorem comes in handy. This time, Peter Norvig shows us how to make a not-so-bad spelling corrector. It was done in 21 lines of easy-to-understand Python! I actually could understand it in one pass of reading. (It usually takes me many reading passes to understand any algorithm--I'm dense that way.)

If you have children, they should have some basic math and probability skills. Rational thoughts need those skills. Otherwise, they won't be able to make quantitative comparisons.

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