Edit distance recursive algorithm -- Skiena

Question

I'm reading The Algorithm Design Manual by Steven Skiena, and I'm on the dynamic programming chapter. He has some example code for edit distance and uses some functions which are explained neither in the book nor on the internet. So I'm wondering

a) how does this algorithm work?

b) what do the functions indel and match do?

#define MATCH     0       /* enumerated type symbol for match */
#define INSERT    1       /* enumerated type symbol for insert */
#define DELETE    2       /* enumerated type symbol for delete */

int string_compare(char *s, char *t, int i, int j)
{
        int k;                  /* counter */
        int opt[3];             /* cost of the three options */
        int lowest_cost;        /* lowest cost */

        if (i == 0) return(j * indel(' '));
        if (j == 0) return(i * indel(' '));

        opt[MATCH] = string_compare(s,t,i-1,j-1) + match(s[i],t[j]);
        opt[INSERT] = string_compare(s,t,i,j-1) + indel(t[j]);
        opt[DELETE] = string_compare(s,t,i-1,j) + indel(s[i]);

        lowest_cost = opt[MATCH];
        for (k=INSERT; k<=DELETE; k++)
                if (opt[k] < lowest_cost) lowest_cost = opt[k];

        return( lowest_cost );
}

Answer 1

On page 287 in the book:

int match(char c, char d)
{
  if (c == d) return(0); 
  else return(1); 
}

int indel(char c)
{
  return(1);
}