Re: [libreoffice-users] spell check, grammar check, dictionary system - my answer/solution given to OOo thread.

On 3 February 2011 21:13, webmaster for Kracked Press Productions
<webmaster@krackedpress.com> wrote:

> There is a need for someone to work on a good content/context
> checker for spelling and grammar.  Add a mini-dictionary function
> to a spell checker would help with people, like me, who may not
> know what the correct spelling is, even though you are given a list.
> Sounding out words does not work well for me since a "normal"
> spell checker will not handle that.
<snip>
> So I do hope some programmer with the knack of programming
> and some good English skills, would take up the call for a free
> proofing system.  Even a low costing one would be great.  There
> is a need that is needed to be filled and there will be a lot of
> students and adults that would be very pleased.  I know I would
> and the students in the School district I taught in would be pleased
> as well.

Hi Tim,

I don't know of a decent grammar checker for English. I suspect part of
the problem is the language itself: few so-called rules that are really
rules, enormous inconsistencies in the language, etc. If given the
option, I won't even *install* a grammar checker and if it is built-in,
I disable it as I find they are far more trouble than they are worth.
(Though I sometimes have turned it on just for laughs.)

I have a good friend who is an English professor who urges his students
to turn off spell checkers because he finds people who rely on them turn
in papers with improperly used words. (They misspell a word and accept
the first suggestion the spell checker offers -- whether it is the
correct word, which it frequently is not.)

I sympathise with his attitude, but I also sympathise with people like
my sister who suffer from dyslexia. In the vast majority of cases, poor
spelling is simply laziness and/or a lack of literacy. For dyslexics,
it is problem that *looks* like laziness and/or a lack of literacy to
those who don't understand. But in a language with homophones,
homographs, heteronyms, and heterographs, I can't even begin to imagine
how one could code for all the possibilities (says he who has much
better spelling and grammar skills than programming skills).

Consider: Can you count to two, too?

Or consider Dylan Thomas's (in)famous _Under Milk Wood_ which refers to
the 'shops in mourning' -- an unusual combining of words which most
listeners would interpret as 'shops in [the] morning'. How could any
program get such a phrase correct? English really is a wacky language.



-- 
T. R. Valentine
Your friends will argue with you. Your enemies don't care.
'When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food
and clothes.' -- Erasmus

-- 
Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to users+help@libreoffice.org
List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/www/users/
*** All posts to this list are publicly archived for eternity ***