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Great article, and as it happens right now I'm using this algorithm in a hardware MIDI sequencer I'm working on .. it works very well for phrase-based recognition of patterns in a MIDI context, also ..

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I've posed the same question to viggity, but in case you only see this in your 'threads' view: how did you know about the existence of this algorithm? Do you:

- Simply know about it, because it was mentioned once, somewhere in a book on algorithms or a class and you remembered it when you knew what you needed?

- Knew what you needed and searched for it. If so, how do you know where to search and what terms do you use?

- Rediscover the algorithm, because you knew what you needed, implemented it and recognized it only later?

I don't have a formal CS background and I sometimes get stuck on: I know what I need and I'm sure someone has implemented it before (and better), but I don't know how to get at that information.

I first encountered the Levenshtein distance at work (where I am part of a team developing SIL-4 level operating systems for use in the transportation industry), as part of our coding rules which describe the differences in variable names allowed (e.g. "char fic; char foc; // ") .. After I looked up the algorithm on my own intuition, I realized it had applicability to MIDI sequences in unique ways, and thats how it came about.

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