Spelling detection and correction in Taxonomic Databases

[Fabio Moretzsohn]

Brian Tindall wrote:
>Sounds like an interesting tool. Unfortunately there are probably quite
>a few names in bacteriology which are incorrectly formed and with a
>decreasing awareness of Latin or Greek the problems could get worse. If
>you can check names in a database would it also be possible to develop
>something to check new names or new combinations online before the
>author of the name goes to press?
>Brian

Another tool that would be useful is one that can translate diagnoses (or
anything) into Latin (and back to English and other languages) for botanical
publications, as well check for new names and combinations as suggested
above.

For the name-checking, I can think about something similar to the
"Shakespearean Insult Server" (http://www.emap.mtu.edu/mdh/Insult.html), in
which the user selects a combination of descriptive words from a drop-down
list (or a fill-in space), and the applet produces a properly formed Latin
or Greek word, and the proper gender according to the genus (and ICxN code).

As for the translation of texts, there are probably some tools already
available (I think Altavista.com offers free translations of webpages and
other documents for some languages, but I doubt that Latin is one of them).

Aloha, Fabio

----------------------------------------
Fabio Moretzsohn
PhD candidate in Zoology
Department of Zoology
University of Hawaii
2538 The Mall
Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
fmoretzsohn at hotmail.com (preferred)
fmoretz at hawaii.edu


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