Re: [patch] (gnus)Splitting in IMAP

[Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>]

On Fri, 11 Jul 2003, jas@extundo.com wrote:
> Nah, my grammar is simply poor.  If I understood the English plural
> forms, I would write a elisp grammar checker, but if I understood
> the English plural forms, I wouldn't need a grammar checker. :-)
> 
> Hm.  Are there any free, general-purpose, grammar checkers?  I
> recall looking for one a few years ago but ended up with nothing
> really useful.  Having a flygrammar-mode in Emacs would be cool.

I assume you mean *English* grammar checkers, right?  There are some
commercial ones, but every single one I've tried, from the old
Grammatik package to today's Word grammar checker, are not up to the
task.  I'm not aware of any non-commercial ones (ELisp or otherwise),
and Google searches came up empty.

It is possible to write specific checks, for instance one can check
for passive voice or for incorrect pluralization, but language is so
incredibly flexible that those checks will have limited usefulness.
In addition, grammatical correctness does not mean that the text is
understandable at all.

English in particular is a mish-mash of Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and many
other languages.  It's a language made of exceptions.  I doubt a
quality grammar checker can be written with today's tools.  But feel
free to prove me wrong :)

Ted