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MS Dictionary and Occam's Razor
Posted: 2003-04-01 05:51am
by Robert Treder
You guys probably already know this, but I was amused to find out while writing an english paper that Microsoft Word's built-in dictionary does not recognize "Occam" as a properly spelled word. As one of its suggestion words it gives "scam".
That dictionary is pretty crazy. I tested some other names to see if it had them. Names it had:
Wozniak
Rousseau
Locke
Kant
Fuhrman
Ito
Cochran
Genghis
Batman
Kurosawa
Toshiro
Scooby
Names it didn't have:
Occam
Kierkegaard
Affleck
Mifune
Flinstone
Jetson
Ahhh...that's crazy. Now, back to writing this damned essay.
Posted: 2003-04-01 05:56am
by Gandalf
Whoa, thats some weird shit.
Posted: 2003-04-01 06:11am
by Kuroneko
See if it accepts "Ockham" instead. In my personal experience that spelling is slightly more common when his name is referenced, but "Occam" is used more often with the "Razor" principle. "Ockham" is English spelling, while "Occam" is Latin. The two are completely interchangable, and there does not seem to be a consensus for usage.
Posted: 2003-04-01 06:16am
by Gandalf
Kuroneko wrote:See if it accepts "Ockham" instead. In my personal experience that spelling is slightly more common when his name is referenced, but "Occam" is used more often with the "Razor" principle. "Ockham" is English spelling, while "Occam" is Latin. The two are completely interchangable, and there does not seem to be a consensus for usage.
I've also seen Ockam.
Posted: 2003-04-01 06:19am
by Kuroneko
Gandalf wrote:I've also seen Ockam.
Possible, but I've never seen it spelled that way in any published work. Most likely an error.
Posted: 2003-04-01 06:20am
by Robert Treder
Nope, doesn't take "Ockham" or "Ockam". But I didn't test for them, of course, because I didn't read your response, because I wasn't surfing the net, because I was writing my essay. Or so I'll keep telling myself.
Posted: 2003-04-01 06:24am
by Kuroneko
Doesn't have it either? Hmm, MS Word spell/grammar check is even more of a joke than I previously thought.
Posted: 2003-04-01 10:55am
by aerius
Good old WordPerfect 6.1 has "Occam" in its spellcheck dictionary, but not the other variations of if. 10 years and I still haven't found a better program for wordprocessing....
Posted: 2003-04-01 12:04pm
by phongn
Microsoft doesn't make their own dictionary, they license it off another company.
Posted: 2003-04-01 12:22pm
by Kuroneko
Regardless, it is inadequate. One would think they could afford to license a better one, or have the resources to make a better one.