: # Use perl
   eval 'exec perl5 -w -S $0 "$@"'
   if 0;
# it is faster to use something like
#!/usr/local/bin/perl5 
# but this is more portable.

##############################################
# String editing distance for hw2
# It expects a file with two words per line,
# and it prints their editing distance
# ############################################
#
# Usage: echo "data dota" | stredit.pl 
# 
# will return '1'
# ############################################


# my $verbose = 1;
my $verbose = 0;
my $w1;
my $w2;

my $idcost = 1; # cost for insertion/deletion of a letter
my $subcost = 1; # cost for substitution of non-matching letters

while(<>){
   chomp($_);
   @words = split  ; # parse the input line - assume it has two words
   $w1 = $words[0];
   $w2 = $words[1];
   # print $w1, "\t", $w2, "\n";

   my @a1 = split(//, $w1); # turn the string into an array
   my @a2 = split(//, $w2);

   my $len1 = scalar ( @a1 ); # find the length of the string
   my $len2 = scalar ( @a2 );

   my $i;
   my $j;
   my %cost=(); # hash (=matrix), with cost to fit the prefix 1..i, 1..j

   for( $i=0; $i <= $len1; $i++ ){
       $cost{ $i } { 0 } = $i * $idcost;
   }
   for( $j=1; $j <= $len2; $j++ ){
       $cost{ 0 } { $j } = $j * $idcost;
   }

   for( $i=1; $i<=$len1; $i++ ){
       for ( $j = 1; $j <=$len2; $j++){
            my $icost = $cost{$i-1}{$j} + $idcost; # insertion
            my $dcost = $cost{$i}{$j-1} + $idcost; # deletion
	                                           # substitution
	    my $val1 = ord ( $a1[$i-1] );
	    my $val2 = ord ( $a2[$j-1] );
	    my $sc;
	    if ( $val1 == $val2) { $sc = 0;}
	    else{ $sc = $subcost ;}
	    my $scost = $cost{$i-1}{$j-1} + $sc;

	    # now, pick the smallest of the three alternatives
	    $cost{$i}{$j} = min( $icost, $dcost, $scost);
       }
   }

   print "First word=|", $w1, "|", "\t Second word=|", $w2, "|", "\t";
   print "EDITING DISTANCE = ", $cost{$len1}{$len2}, "\n";

   # just for debugging:
   if( $verbose ){
       for( $i=0; $i<=$len1; $i++ ){
           for ( $j = 0; $j <=$len2; $j++){
	       print $cost{$i}{$j}, "\t";
           }
	   print "\n";
       }
   }

}

# accepts a list of numbers, and returns the minimum
sub min{
    my @args = @_;
    my $i=0;
    my $len = scalar (@args);
    my $minval;
    $minval = $args[1];
    for($i=0; $i<$len; $i++){
        if ($args[$i] < $minval){
	    $minval = $args[$i];
	}
    }
    return( $minval);
}