"word" as in 'word count'

Posted by Brian from Shawnee on November 17, 2004

In Reply to: "Word" as in 'word count' posted by abe on November 17, 2004

: I read yesterday that the average reported was permitted a maximum of about "1000 words".

: Recently I read that people who visit forums read about "73 words" before clicking next or page down.

: Are "-", "I", "73" words? Is "St. Louis" one word or two?

: (I once worked on a bugfix where any eight bits was a "word".)

: How would you count words?

I don't know why I did it, but I counted 63 words in your post. I would've made "bugfix" two words, though, and there are 8 bits in a byte and 16 in a word. A longword has 32 bits and a quadword 64. That's ancient stuff that they don't teach in schools anymore!

I think "73", "I", and "St. Louis" are words and "-" is not. I used simple common sense, but I'm sure there are standards that can be applied which may contradict common sense. I don't know where you'd find those standards or what they could be.