'\" t
.\"     Title: letterize
.\"    Author: [see the "AUTHOR" section]
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.79.1 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: 03/24/2018
.\"    Manual: Miscellanea
.\"    Source: letterize
.\"  Language: English
.\"
.TH "LETTERIZE" "1" "03/24/2018" "letterize" "Miscellanea"
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.SH "NAME"
letterize_ \- phone\-number to letter\-mnemonic generator
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.HP \w'\fBletterize\fR\ 'u
\fBletterize\fR \fInnnnnnn\fR
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
This program tries to help you find a letter mnemonic matching a given phone number\&.
.PP
It emits to standard output each possible pronounceable mnemonic, one per line, using the American standard mapping of dial letters to numbers (2 goes to ABC, 3 to DEF, 4 to GHI, 5 to JKL, 6 to MNO, 7 to PRS, 8 to TUV, 9 to XYZ)\&.
.PP
The program uses a table of pronounceable letter\-triples derived from a dictionary scan\&. Each potential mnemonic must be such that all of its letter\-triples are in the table to be emitted\&. About 30% of possible triples are considered pronounceable\&.
.PP
A typical 7\-digit phone number has 19,683 possible mnemonics, but this test usually cuts the list down to a few hundred or so, a reasonable number to eyeball\-check\&. For some numbers, the list will, sadly, be empty\&.
.PP
It\*(Aqs best to leave out punctuation such as dashes and parens\&.
.SH "BUGS"
.PP
The filtering method doesn\*(Aqt know what plausible medial triples are not reasonable at the beginnings and ends of words\&.
.PP
I\*(Aqm not sure what table position 0 (which is what 0 and 1 are mapped to) means\&. If you figure it out, you tell me\&. I really should have generated my own table, but that would have been more work than this seemed worth \-\- if your number contains either, you probably need to generate your mnemonic in disjoint pieces around the digits anyway\&.
.SH "AUTHOR"
.PP
Eric S\&. Raymond
<esr@snark\&.thyrsus\&.com>\&. It\*(Aqs based on a table of plausible letter\-triples that had no name attached to it\&. Surf to
\m[blue]\fBhttp://www\&.catb\&.org/~esr/\fR\m[]
for updates and related resources\&.