Etienne Cherdlu

[grip at netcom.com]

On Mon, 14 Oct 1996, George James Software wrote:

> >The Linotype keyboard was arranged approximately in order of English
> >letter frequency, E being most common, T next common, and so on.  When an
> >operator was aware of a typographical error, the line needed to be filled
> >out to allow the slug to be completed.  This was done by running hands
> >along the keyboard, so the slug would typically say something like
> >"tyopgraphical error etaoin shrdlu..." 
> >

There is a chapter in Hofstadter's Goedel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden 
Braid titled "SHRDLU, Toy of Man's Designing" which consists of a dialog 
between a human, Eta Oin, and a computer program, SHRDLU.

Later, in the next chapter, - Hofstadter likes to keep explanations at 
bay, and reveal them only later after the reader has had lots of time to 
puzzle over their meaning - he explains that "ETAOINSHRDLU" was "...used 
by linotype operators to mark typos in newspaper columns". He doesn't 
explain just how these are used. I deduced, correctly I believe, that the 
letters are in the same order as their frequency of appearance in standard 
English language texts. It seems to me that there has been some small 
shift in this arrangement in the last few years, but generally it is true.

If you haven't read Hofstadter's first work, try it. It is a delightful 
book, although tough sledding in some of the more technical aspects such 
as Goedel's incompleteness theorem.

grip