Towards a Standard for Measuring the Accuracy of Any Computer-hyphenation Program

Abstract

No standard of measurement yet exists to measure computer hyphenation accuracy. The author discusses the need for such a standard; among considerations discussed are: word frequency, hyphenation probability, inter-word spacing, and line expansion factors. Very high hyphenation accuracy can be obtained if the computer program can select the words it chooses to hyphenate without being “chastised” for failing to hyphenate where hyphenation is possible. The author presents a series of formulas for arriving at hyphenation accuracy ratings in hyphenation errors.