Re: Would you like to collaborate on grammar and style checking?

On Sat, 2006-12-30 at 07:37 -0700, Jacob Rideout wrote:
> Yes, I am very aware of what has be done with link-grammar. I've more
> or less ported the abi plugin to Qt and played with it a bit. OO.o
> also has a few grammar/style checkers that are in the works. We can
> also tap the knowledge of tools like GNU Diction.
>
> http://lingucomponent.openoffice.org/grammar.html
>
> So, what should the next steps be? I can write up an outline of the
> api and post it to this list. Is more investigation needed? Are there
> considerations specific to Abiword that I should be made aware of?

I'd say, go for it, and make a draft API. We can shoot on that one if
needed.

> Finally, are my requests for changes in Enchant realistic? I'll speak
> to Dom when he returns, but does anybody see potential objections?

Speaking for Dom here, which may turn out to be a bad idea ;) I doubt
this will be any problem. Dom designed Enchant so it would be as widely
used as possible. If a few tweaks will make more projects use Enchant,
then all the better.

Note that some changes are already being discussed, as Enchant is slated
for inclusion in glib, so the sooner you speak up the better I'd say :)

Bye!
  Marc

> Thanks you,
>
> Jacob
>
> On 12/30/06, msevior@physics.unimelb.edu.au
> <msevior@physics.unimelb.edu.au> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> >
> > Hi Jacob,
> > Dom is away on holiday right now. This is a very interesting
> > proposal and I certainly hope we can find ways to co-operate. We
> > have framework for detecting grammar or style errors which works
> > along side our on-the-fly spelling code.
> >
> > The Abiword side of things works pretty well, but the best free grammar
> > checker we've found is link-grammar. While it is of some use, it is very
> > slow and has no ability to offer suggestions for what is wrong with a
> > particular sentence nor are other language well supported although in
> > principle they could be.
> >
> > Despite our best attempts to cooperate with the authors of link-grammar,
> > we've essentially maintained a friendly fork of the project. They appear
> > uninterested in merging our various fixes into their codebase.
> >
> > From my perspective, I'm very interested in the development of better free
> > grammar and style checkers and welcome the opportunity to promote this.
> >
> > We have quite a different interface to the one grammar checker we support
> > but I believe it should be relatively easy to support others in the
> > future.
> >
> > Are you familiar with link-grammar and our interface to it?
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > Martin
> >
> >
> > > I'm the new co-maintainer of Sonnet in KDE. In KDE4 we are going to
> > > call our linguistics framework Sonnet, it will include tools such as
> > > kspell.
> > >
> > > Currently I'm in the middle of porting kspell to use Enchant
> > > exclusively rather than as a plugin. We won't have separate spelling
> > > plugins in KDE4, just Enchant.
> > >
> > > The is one aspect of Enchant that needs to change before we can fully
> > > adopt it. The location of the "enchant.ordering" file needs to be in a
> > > standard location (appropriate for the platform) and we need some way
> > > to know where it is located. We also need the option to use an
> > > explicit file given with an absolute system path. This will enable us
> > > to have GUI configure Enchant settings in a predictable manner.
> > >
> > > I'm willing to work with the Enchant team to extend and improve it.
> > >
> > > I've also come to the conclusion that we need another unified
> > > architecture, similar to Enchant for grammar and style/usage/diction
> > > checking. There seems to be little distinction between grammar errors,
> > > style errors or even potential semantic errors (i.e catching common
> > > errors such as "bed attitude" and suggesting s/bed/bad/ ) in the
> > > various tools available to do such checking. The justification for
> > > such a framework is the same as Enchant, to provide a unified
> > > interface for the various tools available.
> > >
> > > The API should should nearly be the same as Enchant, but also provide
> > > explanations of the detected error.
> > >
> > > I propose to call this project Elixir. The name fits in with Enchant
> > > name. It is a magic reference and refers to a concoction produced by
> > > some recipe that cures some or all ills, which is more or less what
> > > Elixir aspires to do for writing.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > Jacob R Rideout
> > >
> >
> >
> >
Received on Sat Dec 30 17:44:36 2006