Talk:Word frequency
(Redirected from Talk:Word count)
Note from original author
When it doubt assume you have the freedom to define the requirements as whatever you feel is most appropriate in your language of choice. --Kentros (talk) 01:31, 31 August 2017 (UTC)
why entered as a task instead of draft task?
Why was this entry entered as a task instead of a draft task? -- Gerard Schildberger (talk) 03:08, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
... ahhh ... I see that this task was demoted to a draft task by Paddy3118. -- Gerard Schildberger (talk) 08:34, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
task clarification
I assume we are to code programs to handle the general case, not just the file specified/mandated to be used as a test case.
- True. Originally, I suggested a specific text file. I've taken that off and now leave it to the example writer. --Kentros (talk) 01:32, 31 August 2017 (UTC)
What is a "word"?
- A single distinct meaningful element of speech. I speak words. How speech is written is very much language, time and individual dependent. Linguistically Speech, Speach, or even Speych have been used for the same word. Don't mention Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebs. For the purpose of this task I would suggest using the concept of 'orthographic word' which works well for English. Not well for Ancient Greek and Egyptian.--Nigel Galloway (talk) 12:46, 17 August 2017 (UTC)
Is 1997 a word? How about 20? How about twenty?
What letters can be included in a word?
There are a lot of French accented letters in the prescribed text, but are we to be limited to just the French accented letters?
German? Czech? Which dialects of Greek? Logographic kanji? Kana?
What other characters can be included in a word?
- Characters not included in the alphabet are called logograms. They include numbers, foreign letters and mojos. I💖NY is 1 orthographic word. The sentence '1 orthographic word' contains 3 orthographic words'--Nigel Galloway (talk) 12:58, 17 August 2017 (UTC)
Are words that are hyphenated one word or two?
- 1 orthographic word--Nigel Galloway (talk) 12:52, 17 August 2017 (UTC)
What about words like: jack-o'-lantern
- 1 orthographic word--Nigel Galloway (talk) 12:51, 17 August 2017 (UTC)
What about split words across lines (if there are possi-
bly present)?
Are words that contain an apostrophe to be included (such as let's)?
What about words that contain non-Latin (Roman) letters?
As it happens, those non-Latin letters don't show up in the top ten.
What exactly is the text (start and stop) that is contained in the web-page to be used?
Should we also use the prologue and epilogue of the Project Gutenberg along with the book's text?
Wouldn't it be a lot simpler to have a simple (and complete) text file to download [with no (de-)assembly, editing, or text massaging required]?
-- Gerard Schildberger (talk) 03:08, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
It seems the original task author used the regexp \w+ in the Clojure and first Python examples. Maybe he should expand on what \w+ matches and define it as the meaning of a word for the purposes of the task? --Paddy3118 (talk) 20:09, 17 August 2017 (UTC)
- \w means [A-z0-9]. This could be extended to include accented Latin characters: [A-z0-9À-ÿ]. But this would not change that the answers are wrong. There are 41082 occurrences of the word 'the', not 41036. The text contains for instance "BOOK SECOND--THE FALL". I suspect that the Python and Clojure solutions miss this.--Nigel Galloway (talk) 11:51, 18 August 2017 (UTC)
- They are probably missing the two of the three occurrences of 'the' in:
"The beds," pursued the director, "are very much crowded against each other." "That is what I observed." "The halls are nothing but rooms, and it is with difficulty that the air can be changed in them."
--Nigel Galloway (talk) 12:01, 18 August 2017 (UTC)
So long as there shall exist, by virtue of law and custom, decrees of damnation pronounced by society, artificially creating hells amid the civilization of earth, and adding the element of human fate to divine destiny; so long as the three great problems of the century--the degradation of man through pauperism, the corruption of woman through hunger, the crippling of children through lack of light--are unsolved; so long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of the world;--in other words, and with a still wider significance, so long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Misérables cannot fail to be of use.
- They also need to catch the 'the' after century--Nigel Galloway (talk) 12:06, 18 August 2017 (UTC)
- What I mean is, Nigel, that what constitutes a word for the purposes of this task, needs to be defined. Without such a definition, any definition of a word becomes suspect. It is best that the tasks definition of a word is succinct and defined in such a way as to be reproducible in many languages. "Whatever wordprocessor X defines as a word in its word count" doesn't seem like a good enough description for the purposes of a task. --Paddy3118 (talk) 15:02, 18 August 2017 (UTC)
- Really, the only thing at all in question to my mind is, is underscore a letter or not? On the face of it, it seems clear; no, of course not. So should the word "_The" in the text be counted as "_the" or "the"? The \w assertion in PCRE (which most languages use directly or emulate) includes underscore for historical reasons, so "_the" and "the" are counted as different words. On the other hand, does the word "Alèthe" contain any non-letter characters? It is awfully narrow-minded to insist that "if you can't fit it in 7 bits, it ain't a character." That being said, I think disregarding hyphenated words and contractions with embedded apostrophes when counting words is ridiculous too so I added a second version which accounts for them, but it doesn't meet the task requirements as written (hence it being a second version). --Thundergnat (talk) 23:44, 18 August 2017 (UTC)
- For the purposes of this task, which requires the top 10 words, defining a word as [A-z0-9À-ÿ]+ works well and gives the same answers as Perl6 (41088 for the and 14596 for a). Obviously Nigel's is one word, but it would require a lot of possession to promote the single character s into the top 10 words.--Nigel Galloway (talk) 13:23, 19 August 2017 (UTC)
- Really, the only thing at all in question to my mind is, is underscore a letter or not? On the face of it, it seems clear; no, of course not. So should the word "_The" in the text be counted as "_the" or "the"? The \w assertion in PCRE (which most languages use directly or emulate) includes underscore for historical reasons, so "_the" and "the" are counted as different words. On the other hand, does the word "Alèthe" contain any non-letter characters? It is awfully narrow-minded to insist that "if you can't fit it in 7 bits, it ain't a character." That being said, I think disregarding hyphenated words and contractions with embedded apostrophes when counting words is ridiculous too so I added a second version which accounts for them, but it doesn't meet the task requirements as written (hence it being a second version). --Thundergnat (talk) 23:44, 18 August 2017 (UTC)
"The n most common words" is only meaningful where there are exactly n words with the highest numbers of instances. --Nig (talk) 10:06, 29 March 2020 (UTC)
- I take it to mean the N (top-most) common words. -- Gerard Schildberger (talk) 10:23, 29 March 2020 (UTC)
Using Microsoft Word 2010 to count words
I opened this task with MS Word 2010 and asked it to count the occurrences of 'the' (all word forms English). It thinks there are 41082.--Nigel Galloway (talk) 13:17, 17 August 2017 (UTC)
output (using REXX) for the top 1,000 words (including words that contain apostrophes and/or accented letters)
When using the REXX version 1 showing the top 1,000 words (which supports accented letters that are in the file specified, and support for words that contain an embedded apostrophe):
- output when using the following as input: , 1000
574,122 words found (23,414 unique) in 67,663 records read from file: les_mes.TXT
word rank count
════ ══════ ═══════
the 1 41,088
of 2 19,949
and 3 14,942
a 4 14,595
to 5 13,950
in 6 11,214
he 7 9,607
was 8 8,620
that 9 7,826
it 10 6,535
his 11 6,470
is 12 6,198
had 13 6,182
which 14 5,148
with 15 4,528
on 16 4,470
at 17 4,069
this 18 4,008
not 19 3,801
i 20 3,704
you 21 3,686
as 22 3,255
one 23 3,162
for 24 2,987
him 25 2,942
have 26 2,795
her 27 2,636
there 28 2,628
who 29 2,552
all 30 2,485
by 31 2,478
from 32 2,453
she 33 2,439
be 34 2,389
are 35 2,167
an 36 2,127
they 37 2,118
but 38 2,048
no 39 1,971
man 40 1,929
what 41 1,828
were 42 1,824
said 43 1,796
been 44 1,516
marius 45 1,373
when 46 1,366
we 47 1,291
their 48 1,252
jean 49 1,236
will 50 1,232
two 51 1,214
so 52 1,191
my 53 1,170
me 54 1,154
more 55 1,130
himself 56 1,087
has 57 1,080
them 58 1,068
would 59 1,053
valjean 60 1,050
then 61 1,038
these 62 1,008
did 63 994
into 64 992
out 64 992
like 66 985
little 67 983
or 68 957
do 69 932
very 70 923
up 71 921
cosette 72 920
its 73 893
m 74 887
other 75 886
old 75 886
than 77 866
good 78 801
day 79 798
made 80 788
some 80 788
only 82 784
time 83 762
your 84 760
chapter 85 744
if 86 738
nothing 87 736
those 88 735
without 89 699
could 90 678
rue 91 667
well 92 643
about 92 643
de 94 642
where 95 615
men 96 612
say 97 601
first 98 582
here 98 582
any 100 578
father 101 569
now 102 568
should 103 566
moment 104 563
over 105 560
come 106 559
see 107 544
hand 108 543
eyes 109 538
after 110 531
through 110 531
am 112 528
must 113 523
know 114 520
us 115 519
still 116 518
great 117 512
even 118 511
thénardier 119 504
same 119 504
just 121 502
before 122 501
thought 123 496
once 124 485
upon 125 484
door 126 483
three 127 477
how 128 472
being 129 469
head 130 468
under 131 466
people 132 464
each 133 456
go 134 455
again 134 455
name 136 454
house 137 448
sort 137 448
night 139 447
child 139 447
light 141 436
longer 142 432
every 143 430
place 144 429
let 145 428
such 146 426
way 147 424
back 148 423
life 148 423
javert 150 422
right 151 421
young 152 420
can 153 419
long 154 416
paris 155 412
went 155 412
woman 157 409
saint 158 402
took 158 402
never 158 402
seemed 158 402
seen 162 384
called 162 384
four 164 378
take 165 372
make 166 370
love 167 369
something 168 365
monsieur 168 365
years 170 363
whom 171 358
may 172 356
left 172 356
air 174 355
though 174 355
god 176 350
mother 177 348
point 177 348
shall 179 347
does 180 344
whole 180 344
voice 182 343
last 183 339
might 183 339
street 185 338
our 186 336
turned 187 332
most 187 332
own 189 331
down 189 331
much 191 329
almost 192 328
face 193 323
thing 194 321
having 195 318
order 195 318
between 195 318
everything 195 318
towards 195 318
always 200 312
passed 201 310
replied 202 309
hundred 203 306
off 204 305
away 205 304
felt 205 304
against 207 303
things 207 303
soul 209 302
room 209 302
side 211 300
gavroche 211 300
poor 213 299
because 214 298
word 215 297
going 216 296
certain 217 295
taken 217 295
barricade 219 293
behind 220 291
bishop 221 288
la 221 288
wall 221 288
another 224 286
francs 224 286
five 226 285
put 227 284
while 227 284
few 227 284
too 230 283
fact 231 281
hour 231 281
fauchelevent 233 280
found 233 280
saw 233 280
heard 236 278
came 237 276
black 238 272
entered 239 270
near 240 269
end 241 267
heart 242 265
madeleine 243 264
why 244 263
words 245 260
bed 246 258
madame 247 257
enjolras 248 256
yes 249 253
evening 250 250
themselves 250 250
work 250 250
dead 253 249
ah 254 248
six 255 247
white 256 245
death 257 240
since 258 239
remained 258 239
le 260 238
garden 260 238
open 262 237
set 263 236
many 263 236
full 265 235
morning 265 235
sometimes 267 233
began 268 232
children 269 229
half 269 229
table 271 228
thus 272 227
done 272 227
hands 272 227
mind 275 226
also 276 225
think 277 224
itself 277 224
terrible 279 223
get 279 223
become 281 222
gillenormand 281 222
opened 283 220
nor 284 219
beneath 285 216
girl 286 215
anything 287 214
herself 288 213
don't 289 212
person 289 212
large 289 212
human 292 210
feet 293 208
book 294 207
second 295 206
alone 295 206
both 297 204
water 298 203
police 299 201
world 299 201
arms 299 201
far 302 199
fell 303 197
give 304 196
matter 305 195
idea 306 194
return 306 194
twenty 306 194
days 309 192
added 309 192
whose 311 191
already 312 190
one's 313 187
thousand 313 187
above 315 186
corner 316 185
exclaimed 317 183
fantine 318 182
returned 318 182
window 318 182
possible 321 181
sir 322 179
fire 323 178
earth 323 178
however 323 178
louis 326 176
case 326 176
front 326 176
round 329 174
france 330 173
tell 330 173
grave 330 173
later 330 173
held 334 171
courfeyrac 334 171
true 336 170
knew 336 170
speak 336 170
cold 336 170
among 340 168
resumed 340 168
less 342 167
part 343 166
saying 344 165
sewer 344 165
age 344 165
new 347 164
arm 347 164
look 347 164
manner 350 163
revolution 350 163
iron 350 163
yet 350 163
silence 354 162
glance 355 161
rather 356 160
low 356 160
oh 358 159
lost 358 159
became 358 159
raised 358 159
pass 362 157
hair 363 156
convent 363 156
stone 363 156
des 363 156
women 363 156
du 363 156
sister 369 155
appeared 369 155
o'clock 371 154
jondrette 371 154
within 371 154
forth 371 154
stood 371 154
reached 371 154
caught 377 153
read 378 152
happy 379 150
perhaps 380 149
following 380 149
nevertheless 380 149
placed 380 149
small 384 148
beheld 384 148
turn 386 147
wine 387 146
form 387 146
grand 387 146
coat 390 145
state 390 145
making 390 145
myself 393 144
road 393 144
shadow 395 143
society 395 143
nature 395 143
joy 395 143
hours 399 142
presence 400 141
chamber 400 141
fine 400 141
piece 403 140
ground 403 140
darkness 403 140
letter 403 140
fall 407 139
question 407 139
battle 407 139
foot 407 139
paper 407 139
closed 407 139
sight 413 138
shop 413 138
suddenly 415 137
law 416 136
war 416 136
gave 416 136
live 416 136
find 420 135
trees 420 135
times 420 135
beginning 423 134
present 423 134
told 423 134
asked 423 134
close 423 134
eye 423 134
napoleon 429 133
red 429 133
short 429 133
better 432 132
money 432 132
public 432 132
moreover 432 132
brought 432 132
looked 432 132
seized 432 132
during 439 131
ancient 439 131
rose 439 131
want 439 131
reader 443 130
taking 443 130
neither 443 130
smile 443 130
others 443 130
th 448 129
course 448 129
lay 448 129
pocket 448 129
english 452 128
century 452 128
enter 452 128
force 452 128
knows 452 128
sound 452 128
necessary 458 127
given 458 127
ever 458 127
continued 458 127
understand 458 127
rest 463 126
along 463 126
thou 465 125
it's 465 125
quarter 467 124
history 468 123
grandfather 468 123
around 468 123
seated 468 123
call 472 122
cried 472 122
beside 472 122
strange 472 122
able 472 122
daughter 472 122
streets 472 122
perceived 479 121
direction 479 121
visible 479 121
guard 482 120
mysterious 482 120
formed 482 120
gazed 482 120
dark 486 119
die 486 119
convict 486 119
impossible 489 118
past 489 118
ten 489 118
floor 489 118
filled 489 118
bottom 494 117
except 495 116
cut 495 116
seven 495 116
sun 495 116
cast 495 116
year 500 115
broken 500 115
town 500 115
means 500 115
charming 504 114
king 504 114
hardly 504 114
country 504 114
probably 504 114
whether 504 114
melancholy 504 114
galleys 504 114
single 512 113
sous 512 113
laid 512 113
drew 512 113
shadows 516 111
waterloo 516 111
profound 516 111
mademoiselle 516 111
arrived 516 111
paid 516 111
says 516 111
comes 523 110
cannot 523 110
french 523 110
mayor 523 110
beautiful 523 110
appearance 523 110
morrow 523 110
makes 530 109
outside 530 109
carriage 530 109
least 530 109
blood 530 109
doubt 530 109
happiness 536 108
living 536 108
received 536 108
post 539 107
depths 539 107
cross 539 107
lighted 539 107
bad 543 106
general 543 106
escape 543 106
followed 543 106
hear 543 106
together 543 106
ii 549 105
bourgeois 549 105
hole 549 105
step 549 105
disappeared 549 105
eight 549 105
boulevard 549 105
often 556 104
known 556 104
truth 556 104
bread 556 104
gloomy 556 104
stones 556 104
quite 562 103
slang 562 103
hold 562 103
evil 562 103
movement 562 103
shot 567 102
lived 567 102
nearly 567 102
gone 567 102
leblanc 567 102
use 572 101
thirty 572 101
epoch 572 101
family 572 101
cosette's 572 101
walls 572 101
fallen 572 101
recognized 572 101
immense 572 101
carried 572 101
mouth 572 101
horse 583 100
progress 583 100
girls 583 100
caused 583 100
need 583 100
really 583 100
hideous 583 100
effect 590 99
mingled 590 99
heaven 590 99
pretty 590 99
houses 590 99
wish 590 99
coming 590 99
certainly 590 99
sword 590 99
future 599 98
social 599 98
army 599 98
conscience 599 98
that's 599 98
pay 599 98
passing 605 97
ago 605 97
until 605 97
liberty 605 97
steps 605 97
yourself 605 97
brother 611 96
third 611 96
chair 611 96
attention 611 96
struck 611 96
iv 616 95
ideas 616 95
months 616 95
flowers 616 95
teeth 620 94
breath 620 94
duty 620 94
gutenberg 623 93
midst 623 93
remain 623 93
spot 623 93
candle 623 93
project 628 92
produced 628 92
iii 628 92
sleep 628 92
below 628 92
body 628 92
hat 628 92
soon 628 92
enough 628 92
becomes 637 91
mabeuf 637 91
forty 637 91
moments 637 91
bent 637 91
wife 642 90
city 642 90
covered 642 90
pontmercy 642 90
distance 646 89
doctor 646 89
fifteen 646 89
loved 646 89
frightful 646 89
served 646 89
further 646 89
fear 646 89
sign 646 89
unknown 655 88
wind 655 88
seems 655 88
simple 655 88
peace 655 88
glass 660 87
occasion 660 87
allowed 660 87
understood 660 87
fellow 660 87
gaze 660 87
instant 660 87
line 660 87
singular 668 86
leave 668 86
slowly 668 86
monseigneur 671 85
bit 671 85
although 671 85
windows 671 85
thoughts 671 85
tone 671 85
brow 671 85
sad 671 85
formidable 671 85
minutes 671 85
square 681 84
friends 681 84
secret 681 84
high 681 84
forest 681 84
souls 681 84
rendered 681 84
montparnasse 688 83
grantaire 688 83
pale 688 83
laugh 688 83
none 688 83
prison 688 83
enormous 688 83
walked 688 83
husband 688 83
uttered 688 83
vague 698 82
stranger 698 82
misery 698 82
succeeded 698 82
knees 698 82
either 698 82
halted 698 82
top 698 82
combeferre 698 82
power 707 81
obliged 707 81
according 707 81
reply 707 81
blue 707 81
sur 707 81
prisoner 713 80
watch 713 80
justice 713 80
dressed 713 80
killed 713 80
ran 713 80
june 719 79
view 719 79
spring 719 79
éponine 719 79
heads 719 79
home 719 79
presented 719 79
sombre 719 79
big 719 79
eat 719 79
re 729 78
despair 729 78
tree 729 78
serious 729 78
existed 729 78
fixed 729 78
horrible 729 78
middle 729 78
doing 729 78
i'm 729 78
porter 729 78
number 740 77
rich 740 77
service 740 77
asleep 740 77
son 740 77
destiny 740 77
church 740 77
spoke 740 77
perfectly 740 77
several 740 77
chimney 740 77
sure 740 77
gun 740 77
montfermeil 753 76
entering 753 76
fashion 753 76
whence 753 76
deal 753 76
terror 753 76
noise 753 76
magloire 753 76
crime 753 76
care 753 76
sky 753 76
pavement 753 76
cannon 753 76
forms 766 75
petit 766 75
begun 766 75
concealed 766 75
touched 766 75
burst 766 75
motionless 766 75
inn 766 75
cry 766 75
thrust 766 75
bossuet 776 74
march 776 74
thinking 776 74
man's 776 74
besides 776 74
fault 776 74
feel 776 74
composed 776 74
standing 776 74
deserted 776 74
names 786 73
hope 786 73
rain 786 73
real 786 73
speaking 786 73
aside 786 73
forced 786 73
honest 786 73
free 786 73
mass 795 72
wild 795 72
gate 795 72
amid 795 72
d 795 72
hence 795 72
haste 795 72
neck 795 72
walk 795 72
paused 795 72
vast 795 72
honor 795 72
blind 795 72
shouted 795 72
et 795 72
got 810 71
lower 810 71
whatever 810 71
drawing 810 71
letters 810 71
else 810 71
court 810 71
shoes 810 71
resembled 810 71
box 810 71
wore 810 71
coffin 810 71
v 822 70
master 822 70
situation 822 70
respect 822 70
address 822 70
subject 822 70
rope 822 70
peculiar 822 70
written 822 70
reason 822 70
breast 822 70
school 822 70
valjean's 822 70
divine 835 69
horses 835 69
gentle 835 69
ideal 835 69
holy 835 69
baron 835 69
chance 835 69
gentleman 835 69
winter 835 69
listened 835 69
silver 835 69
traversed 835 69
paces 835 69
keep 835 69
insurrection 835 69
waiting 850 68
civilization 850 68
evidently 850 68
lines 850 68
sou 850 68
account 850 68
beyond 850 68
erect 850 68
key 850 68
race 850 68
seeing 850 68
everywhere 850 68
walking 862 67
double 862 67
departure 862 67
stars 862 67
change 862 67
cart 862 67
priest 862 67
worthy 862 67
creature 862 67
youth 862 67
fifty 862 67
behold 862 67
play 862 67
turning 862 67
wounded 862 67
recognize 862 67
fresh 862 67
bench 862 67
stared 862 67
beings 862 67
cap 882 66
wrong 882 66
heavy 882 66
persons 882 66
kept 882 66
green 882 66
talking 882 66
addressed 882 66
space 882 66
soldiers 882 66
emperor 892 65
obscure 892 65
named 892 65
thanks 892 65
condemned 892 65
sent 892 65
possessed 892 65
shut 892 65
approached 892 65
cloud 892 65
sainte 892 65
dawn 903 64
virtue 903 64
story 903 64
listen 903 64
opening 903 64
dream 903 64
wood 903 64
month 903 64
run 903 64
complete 912 63
vi 912 63
takes 912 63
flight 912 63
gamin 912 63
pity 912 63
note 912 63
bare 912 63
ill 912 63
tried 912 63
wrath 912 63
calm 912 63
noticed 912 63
ask 912 63
possession 912 63
lofty 912 63
gloom 912 63
memory 912 63
angle 912 63
wellington 912 63
affair 932 62
existence 932 62
immediately 932 62
believe 932 62
finished 932 62
preceding 932 62
dropped 932 62
effort 932 62
stupid 932 62
object 932 62
attitude 932 62
lightning 932 62
sweet 932 62
les 945 61
entrance 945 61
tomb 945 61
pronounced 945 61
talk 945 61
etc 945 61
doors 945 61
crowd 945 61
linen 945 61
quitted 945 61
attack 945 61
tholomyès 945 61
merry 957 60
picpus 957 60
self 957 60
abyss 957 60
required 957 60
gold 957 60
instinct 957 60
fatal 957 60
emerged 957 60
mean 957 60
sense 957 60
habit 957 60
action 957 60
england 957 60
soldier 957 60
demanded 957 60
bore 957 60
flung 957 60
blow 975 59
national 975 59
faubourg 975 59
died 975 59
cause 975 59
hall 975 59
spirit 975 59
descended 975 59
horror 975 59
colonel 975 59
conscious 975 59
deep 975 59
rags 975 59
revery 975 59
ear 975 59
dog 975 59
roof 975 59
pistol 975 59
works 993 58
horizon 993 58
suffering 993 58
field 993 58
observed 993 58
narrow 993 58
building 993 58
latter 993 58
ourselves 993 58
absolutely 993 58
happened 993 58
yellow 993 58
purpose 993 58
exists 993 58
repeated 993 58
shoulders 993 58
falling 993 58
smoke 993 58
prioress 993 58
Note that the first word that contains an apostrophe is the word don't at the rank of 289.
The first word that contains an accented letter is the word thénardier at the tied rank of 119.
Communications of the ACM June 1986 Volume 29 Number 6
This article is cited in the task description, it is not freely available. Apparently it is 10 pages of PASCAL. McIlroy's unix response is available. I've added a reference to the task description. When run it produces:
cat 135-0.txt | tr -cs A-Za-z '\n' | tr A-Z a-z | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | sed ${1}q
41089 the
--Nigel Galloway (talk) 16:23, 23 August 2017 (UTC)
- FWIW, The article cited is not free on the ACM website, but it is free from the Princeton CS (Donald Knuth) site. Just type "Programming pearls: a literate program" into Google and press "I'm feeling lucky".
- Also, that UNIX shell script example is already on the task page. It was one of the first ones added. --Thundergnat (talk) 17:41, 23 August 2017 (UTC)
- Thanks for the reference. The Unix example on the page does not acknowledge that it is McIlroy's solution. Reading Knuth's version it is clear that it would also have given 41089 as the answer. My point is that the task description relies on these two articles, both of which return 41089 as the answer when applied to the mandated test input, and examples in Clojure and Python which both give 41036 as the answer. I think that the answer should be 41088. This can be explained:
- The Python and Clojure examples are wrong;
- The references were never designed to be run using Unicode, which apparently traces it's origins to 1987, but I don't think was widely used before the late 90's.
- The task author has never run the cited references using the mandated input.
- The original author does not seem to be taking any further interest in this task. Perhaps you would like to update the description and mark the Clojure and Python examples as wrong to resolve this.--Nigel Galloway (talk) 13:41, 25 August 2017 (UTC)
- Thanks for the reference. The Unix example on the page does not acknowledge that it is McIlroy's solution. Reading Knuth's version it is clear that it would also have given 41089 as the answer. My point is that the task description relies on these two articles, both of which return 41089 as the answer when applied to the mandated test input, and examples in Clojure and Python which both give 41036 as the answer. I think that the answer should be 41088. This can be explained:
- Knuth's paper clarifies another issue 'Let us agree that a word is a sequence of one or more contiguous letters; “Bentley” is a word, but ain't isn’t'.--Nigel Galloway (talk) 14:26, 25 August 2017 (UTC)
- The task defines a word as a sequence of contiguous letters (as in McIlroy's solution) without defining what a letter is. How about leaving it up to the sample writer what a letter is? Samples could then use the Unicode definition or the ASCII definition (or even some other character set) as convenient? --Tigerofdarkness (talk) 18:09, 25 August 2017 (UTC)
- One could for a laugh but not seriously. For a laugh I asked MS Word to open the mandated input using US-ASCII. It then thinks the book is Les MisC)rables. Knuth defined the task assuming it was going to read US-ASCII, and clearly defines what a letter is in that context. It makes no sense to write a task for US-ASCII (e.g. Unix on the task page) and then run it on an example in UTF-8. Obviously an alternative is to mandate an example written in US-ASCII--Nigel Galloway (talk) 10:32, 26 August 2017 (UTC)
- The task as currently defined does not specify what a letter is. I suggested a definition that would allow both the "classic" (pre-RC) solutions and the new Python etc. samples to be accepted. --Tigerofdarkness (talk) 12:31, 26 August 2017 (UTC)
Code Golf mention
- Bentley's coding challenge: k most frequent words at Code Golf Stack Exchange mentions this task.