Steve Bennett skrev:
I have an idea for an improvement to the system of
redirects, by using
pattern-based aliases. <...>
The problem:
Many pages require a largeish number of
redirects, to cope with differences in spelling, optional words,
accented characters etc. It's a surprising amount of work to create
and maintain these,
when the value of each individual redirect is so low. For example,
[[Thomas-François Dalibard]] might be spelt four ways, each requiring a
redirect: Thomas-Francois Dalibart, Thomas François Dalibard, Thomas
Francois Dalibard.
General solution:
Soundex.
The title variants, or, very often due to differencies in spelling, is
an old problem which was solved a long time ago, long before computers
came about. The (old) solution was based on the fact that sound
comprises differencies in spelling etc, hence "Soundex" :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundex#History
Difference spelling can be automatically translated to and from a
Soundex scheme, on the fly. Soundex is "machine readable" as well as
writeable, and can be computed by search engines instead of being
stored (Redirects would still take care of "conceptual" differencies
in titles, which requires human interaction).
Soundex is different and it would not exactly be creating a YARR
system (Yet Another Redirect Redirect).
Regards,
// Rolf Lampa