WORDSD.DO Documentation for
WORDS.BA Text Analyzer

by James Main Kenney


Count words, sentences, paragraphs
and other text descriptors


WORDS.BA is a modification of CHRCNT.BA for word processing.  Instead of printing all the counts to a file, selected counts are displayed at the end of the analysis, along with some text descriptors calculated from the character counts.

An unintended bonus of WORDS is its usefulness in facilitating a rapid review of files without the necessity of holding down keys.  To stop the scroll, press PAUSE; do the same to restart.

The analysis appears automatically at the end of the file.  The results displayed use abbreviations for paragraphs, sentences, words, characters, and the "fog factors": sentences per paragraph, words per sentence, and characters per word (all expressed as integers).

Paired characters such as parentheses and brackets are flanked by the numbers of each for comparison (for "double" quotation marks, look for an even number).  Other selected punctuation marks preceded by their counts fill out the display.

At the bottom is the prompt "Chr/[More]/Menu"; entering a character will produce the count for that character and a return of the prompt; go to Menu by pressing the Menu key (F8 or SHIFT-f5).

By noting the counts at points within the file, analyses of subsections are possible.  Tapping ENTER gives the analysis to that point; tapping ENTER again without first typing a character will cause a resumption of the analysis (without zeroing the counts) if the file end has not been reached (and an EF error if it has!).

Certain assumptions for the derived descriptors were required; these include: two spaces following each sentence except at the end of a paragraph, two carriage returns per paragraph, and no spaces used for indentation.  Other styles may require program modifications for best accuracy.  Modification has been facilitated by the choice of characters for variables: L, W, S, and P for, respectively, characters ("Letters"), Words, Sentences, and Paragraphs.