Subject: Re: Feature Request - Grammar Checker
From: Anders Rune Jensen (root@gnulinux.dk)
Date: Wed Sep 12 2001 - 15:40:56 CDT
I agree 100%
Also we need to make sure that the sourceforge page is synced with the
abiword.com and that a .i386.deb is realeased to debian. Especially the
ability to make html links in a html dokument is very recommeded!
On Wed, 2001-09-12 at 22:29, robin wrote:
> Steve wrote:
> >
> > First off I wish to thank you for all your hard work developing a great
> > product.
>
> I concur. I don't use Abiword very often, as I'm more of a LaTeX
> person, but I'm impressed, and I find it useful when I need to read Word
> documents and don't want to wait for OpenOffice to load up ;-)
>
> > One feature however which I find is lacking in a lot of
> > open-source wordprocessors but is very much needed is a grammar checker.
> > Being a writer, personally I consider this to be an invalueble feature
> > for editing purposes. If possible could you please include a grammar
> > checking in an upcoming version of Abiword.
>
> Please don't!
>
> Grammar checkers are at best irritating and at worst misleading. In the
> days when I used MS Word, I would sometimes turn on the grammar checker
> for amusement. Frequently it would mark sentences as ungrammatical which
> I was convinced were perfectly normal English. Given that I have a
> degree in English and an MA in linguistics, I'm fairly sure my knowledge
> of grammar can hold its own in a fight against a grammar checker.
>
> Until we have genuine AI, grammar checkers will be unfeasible, for the
> simple reason that computers cannot guess a writer's intentions. For
> example, anyone reading this list will know that if I write (classic
> example) "Time flies like an arrow", the sentence doesn't have the same
> grammar as "Fruit flies like a banana". To a computer, they are
> syntactically identical.
>
> More to the point, the philosophy of Abiword, as I understand it, is to
> concentrate on the most necessary features and avoid bloat. Maybe when
> Abiword has essential features like tables, we can think about producing
> Abiword++ with grammar checkers, thesauri and the like.
>
> Robin
>
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Med venlig Hilsen:
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Anders Rune Jensen
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