[082349872349872]

Close also counts in computation, where we routinely handle infinite (or at least combinatorially effectively so) numbers of possible inputs with a few general rules and a finite ("almost no", to use a technical term) number of exceptions.

[asaph]

Perhaps my impression that this grammatical problem should be treated with logical rigor, where even a single counter-example invalidates the solution, isn’t the way this is being treated. The way it was presented in the article was like it was a kind of logic puzzle, for which an elegant solution has finally been found. Sounds like it’s more like a better rule of thumb was discovered that reduced the error rate, not to zero.