I just typed 'Aldebugrh' instead of 'Aldeburgh'. The TB spellcheck
correctly flagged it up, but then only suggested 'Aldebaran' as an
alternative. Although I like Aldeburgh, I don't think it has
the brilliance of Aldebaran, But when I corrected my mistake, it
already knew about 'Aldeburgh', but it didn't suggest it. Weird.
This is on Claws-mail, and it also does not recognise 'Aldeburgh'.
Strange.

--
Davey.

On 14/10/2022 08:45, Davey wrote:
> I just typed 'Aldebugrh' instead of 'Aldeburgh'. The TB spellcheck
> correctly flagged it up, but then only suggested 'Aldebaran' as an
> alternative. Although I like Aldeburgh, I don't think it has
> the brilliance of Aldebaran, But when I corrected my mistake, it
> already knew about 'Aldeburgh', but it didn't suggest it. Weird.
> This is on Claws-mail, and it also does not recognise 'Aldeburgh'.
> Strange.
>

Google gives 11,000,000 hits for Aldebaran, but only 2,700,000 for
Aldeburgh. I'd never heard of Aldeburgh, despite living close enough to
have cycled to Dunwich and Clacton in the last few months.

So perhaps the spell checker is giving the result it thinks most people
would be interested in, result star quality so to speak.

On Sat, 15 Oct 2022 08:23:49 +0100
Pancho <Pancho.Jones@proton.me> wrote:

> On 14/10/2022 08:45, Davey wrote:
> > I just typed 'Aldebugrh' instead of 'Aldeburgh'. The TB spellcheck
> > correctly flagged it up, but then only suggested 'Aldebaran' as an
> > alternative. Although I like Aldeburgh, I don't think it has
> > the brilliance of Aldebaran, But when I corrected my mistake, it
> > already knew about 'Aldeburgh', but it didn't suggest it. Weird.
> > This is on Claws-mail, and it also does not recognise 'Aldeburgh'.
> > Strange.
> >
>
>
> Google gives 11,000,000 hits for Aldebaran, but only 2,700,000 for
> Aldeburgh. I'd never heard of Aldeburgh, despite living close enough
> to have cycled to Dunwich and Clacton in the last few months.
>
> So perhaps the spell checker is giving the result it thinks most
> people would be interested in, result star quality so to speak.
>

Aldeburgh is best known as the home of the composer Benjamin Britten,
and was also the home of the author Laurens van der Post, where he did
much of his writing. There were, of course, others, such as Elizabeth
Garrett Anderson. Nearby Snape is the host venue for the annual
Aldeburgh Festival.

And equally importantly, it is where my parents retired to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldeburgh#History

--
Davey.

Pancho wrote:

> Google gives 11,000,000 hits for Aldebaran, but only 2,700,000 for Aldeburgh.
> I'd never heard of Aldeburgh, despite living close enough to have cycled to
> Dunwich and Clacton in the last few months.
>
> So perhaps the spell checker is giving the result it thinks most people would be
> interested in, result star quality so to speak.

I doubt a spell-checker consults a search engine for popularity of alternative
spellings, more likely to suggest spellings with the shorter "distance" between them

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance>

On 15/10/2022 09:32, Andy Burns wrote:
> Pancho wrote:
>
>> Google gives 11,000,000 hits for Aldebaran, but only 2,700,000 for
>> Aldeburgh. I'd never heard of Aldeburgh, despite living close enough
>> to have cycled to Dunwich and Clacton in the last few months.
>>
>> So perhaps the spell checker is giving the result it thinks most
>> people would be interested in, result star quality so to speak.
>
> I doubt a spell-checker consults a search engine for popularity of
> alternative spellings, more likely to suggest spellings with the shorter
> "distance" between them
>
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance>
>

Yeahbut...

Levenshtein_distance( Aldebugrh, Aldeburgh) = 2
Levenshtein_distance( Aldebugrh, Aldebaran) = 4

<https://planetcalc.com/1721/>

In article <tib437$21nvh$1@dont-email.me>, Davey wrote:
> I just typed 'Aldebugrh' instead of 'Aldeburgh'. The TB spellcheck
> correctly flagged it up, but then only suggested 'Aldebaran' as an
> alternative.

What gets suggested will depend on the spellchecker software (TB uses
MySpell) and the dictionary. I ran 'Aldebugrh' through GNU ASpell --
which is not the same thing, of course -- and it suggested:

Aldebaran
Elderberry
Albacore
Ultrahigh
Albacores

I'd have hoped that more than one of those would also be in MySpell's
dictionary, but perhaps not.

> But when I corrected my mistake, it already knew about 'Aldeburgh',
> but it didn't suggest it. Weird.

I suspect 'Aldeburgh' is known because you've added it in the past. The
'suggestion' function of the spellchecker may only work using the
built-in dictionary.

> This is on Claws-mail, and it also does not recognise 'Aldeburgh'.

You can't expect every small town in Suffolk to appear in a
spellchecker dictionary -- even a UK English dictionary.

--
Cheers,
Daniel.