>For example, people have said that the ability to compare two codes is important to see how close they are. They've said this without justification and it is n

>For example, people have said that the ability to compare two codes is important to see how close they are. They've said this without justification and it is not a use case for which I designed the code. I've raised this objection, but I still think it is quite valid. Compare "43 Montgomery St" to KN4 HNA M33B. First off, I'll tell you immediately which one I find more memorable! I can use any number of mnemonics to store the first; the second is near incomprehensible. Ignoring even that, people have quite a bit of experiential knowledge of local street addresses. Give most people an address -- even an unfamiliar one -- and they can provide with some degree of accuracy what's around, a way to get there, etc. For local use only, this encoding doesn't make sense to me. But, if we assume that the typical user of SOC would be a person who strictly uses their GPS to navigate from point to point, this encoding has some advantages. Another possible use case would be for travelers. Costa Rican addresses are based on distances from landmarks, and as a traveler I quickly learned that many of the landmarks refer to buildings that were demolished in the 1970s! In that case, 75 m Norte de la Coca Cola means exactly as much to me as HFW QMJ BBBE, and this encoding could actually be entered into my GPS.