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   OSNews (osnews@mstdn.social)'s status on Tuesday, 21-Jan-2025 08:48:20 JST OSNews

   How UNIX spell ran in 64kB RAM

   How do you fit a 250kB dictionary in 64kB of RAM and still perform fast lookups? For reference, even with modern compression techniques like gzip -9, you can't compress this file below 85kB.

   In the 1970s, Douglas McIlroy faced this exact challenge while implementing the spell checker for Unix at AT&T. The constraints of the PDP-11 computer meant the entire dictionary needed

   https://www.osnews.com/story/141586/how-unix-spell-ran-in-64kb-ram/

   #Unix