For this week I added a java class which writes the contents of a concordance to a text file. It basically takes what was coming into the Eclipse console and writes it to an output file (concordanceOutput.txt). Dan's tree class was modified to return string values from the Tree. The concordance class was modified to call the A2ZFileWriter class accordingly.

The text file generated form running the most recent State of The Union address can be seen here. Iraq was used 13 times. So unlucky.

Modified source: concordance.zip
File Writer: A2ZFilewriter.java

Reactions to this weeks readings:
Algorithmic Efficiency
The concept of algorithmic Efficiency is something which I knew existed but knew nothing about. Being new to computer science concepts, I am still attempting to grasp many of the abstract ideas described in the article. The orders described in the article allude to a ranking system of efficiency. The orders described are typically referred to as big-O because order is typical written as O.

Looking at the various types of orders described O(1), O(logn), O(n) ect... I believe that everything I have ever written has been o(1), the lowest on the totem poll. This is probably because my expertise is in human factors and front end interface development. There hasn't been a need for advanced algorithmic compositions. Hopefully what I'll take away for this class is the ability to understand and compose more advance algorithms. More on the readings form this week...

Geoffrey Rockwell and Ian Lancashier bring up very good points in their article: What is Text Analysis? I've often contemplated whether or not information that is available to me will be available to people in five, ten and twenty years. Much of the electronic text produce by society is timely and will some day soon be deleted. The nature of electronic text is a blessing and a curse. While we casually enjoy the distribution model of being able to access electronic text from anywhere at any time, there is danger in how easily we can erase it. The transient nature of the text and content we create often goes unnoticed. However who is to say what is important? While cataloging all electronic text is an impossibility, there are culturally significant items which probably should be preserved. This loss is a loss of culture, not that of the author.