Michael Jay Lissnerhttps://michaeljaylissner.com/2011-03-13T23:13:34-07:00Project Idea: “Programming library for curse words”2011-03-13T23:13:34-07:00Mike Lissnertag:michaeljaylissner.com,2011-03-13:posts/2011/03/13/project-idea-curse-word-library/<p>When programming, there are occasionally times when you need to detect or block curse words. At CourtListener, for example, we make URLs with <span class="caps">ID</span> numbers in them that are formed by converting an <span class="caps">ID</span> number to letters (so a → 1, b → 2, 27 → A, etc). Higher numbers create longer strings of letters, so over time, this creates curse words in the <span class="caps">URL</span>. Currently, the site is only has a few four letter strings, but I will rue the day when any of the <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Seven_dirty_words">seven dirty words</a> is being shown to users on my site.</p>
<p>There are many lists of curse words on the web, but none that is maintained or curated. Having that alone would be a useful project. What would make it better would be libraries in popular programming languages that efficiently told you if a string contained a curse word. </p>
<p>The next feature would be to add additional languages, and then to add words like pen1s, which aren’t normally curse words, but are certainly words you’d want to eliminate.</p>
<p>It’d be a pretty simple project, so I may just go for it.</p>
<p>Only question is, what do I name it?</p>