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  2. Received: from kingfisher.CS.Arizona.EDU (kingfisher.CS.Arizona.EDU [192.12.69.239])
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  6.     id AA19556; Mon, 16 Mar 1998 12:30:36 -0700
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  8. Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 10:02:53 -0600
  9. From: Mark Evans <evans@gte.net>
  10. Reply-To: evans@gte.net
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  14. To: icon-group@optima.CS.Arizona.EDU
  15. Subject: Re: Letter Probabilities
  16. References: <199803151331.GAA18413@orpheus.gemini.edu>
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  22.  
  23. Finally someone answered my question!  Thanks, Steve!
  24.  
  25. If your alphabet has three letters {A,B,C} with probabilities
  26. {0.50,0.20,0.30} respectively then a table like this --
  27.  
  28. A   0.5
  29. C   0.3
  30. B   0.2
  31.  
  32. can be used to make random text.  I am not arguing that it's more
  33. elegant than the Icon ?string construct as everyone seems to imagine.
  34.  
  35. The random number x in [0,1] has uniform distribution.  By turns,
  36. subtract each number in the table until x <= 0, and there is your
  37. letter.  This technique would not work if x had nonuniform distribution.
  38.  
  39. For the record I suppose I should say that I like the generator string
  40. idea better myself, thought of it before getting on the newgroup here,
  41. and still think highly of it.
  42.  
  43. Mark
  44.  
  45.