3.147 grammar and spelling checkers, cont. (144)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@VM.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA)
Tue, 20 Jun 89 18:30:40 EDT


Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 147. Tuesday, 20 Jun 1989.


(1) Date: Tue, 20 Jun 89 11:42:07 PLT (26 lines)
From: PACE@WSUVM1
Subject: grammar and spelling checkers

(2) DATE: Tuesday, June 20, 1989, 11:46:30 MST (97 lines)
FROM: John J. Hughes <XB.J24@Stanford.BITNET>
SUBJECT: Spell Checkers

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 89 11:42:07 PLT
From: PACE@WSUVM1
Subject: grammar and spelling checkers

Re: The request for information on spelling and grammar checkers

I use RightWriter exclusively as a grammar checker, in combo with
WordPerfect's speller and thesaurus. RightWriter (RW) reads the word
processor file, examines the document based on rules of grammar which
the user can turn on or off, and writes a marked-up copy of the document
to a separate file. Much of the work is performed by AI routines in the
program.

In a recent magazine review, the writer liked Grammatik III better, but
I find RW's flexibility and compatibility with WP more to my taste. I
think you will find this type of grammar checker both instructive and
useful in the classroom situation.

I used almost all the grammar and style rules at first, to identify weak
points. Then I turned off rules as the correct form became habit. I leave
rules for passive voice and split infinitives on, just to keep me on my toes.
I turn off the cliche finder.

RW also works well in pointing out punctuation problems, unbalanced parens
and things like that.
Good Luck, Guy.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------101---
DATE: Tuesday, June 20, 1989, 11:46:30 MST
FROM: John J. Hughes <XB.J24@Stanford.BITNET>
SUBJECT: Spell Checkers


Dear HUMANISTs,


Thank you Don Fowler (DPF@VAX.OXFORD.AC.UK--Jesus College,
Oxford) for providing an answer to my request for a spell checker
that will accept nonalpha symbols as valid word constituents.


WordPerfect 5.0's spell checker is the solution. To get this
spell checker to accept nonalpha symbols as valid word
constituents, you must do one of two things: (1) create a
Supplemental Dictionary of such words and load it when you use
the spell checker or (2) create a file of such words and use the
WP 5.0 SPELL utility to add your file to the main WordPerfect
dictionary file WP{WP}US.LEX.


Although a WordPerfect technical support person told me that a
Supplemental Dictionary should not contain more than 300 words, I
used one that contained 860 words. To speed up the spell checking
process, I created a test file of 860 words and used the WP 5.0
SPELL utility to add this file to the WP{WP}US.LEX file. Then I
spell checked a test file that consisted of transliterated Greek,
and the spell checking went without a hitch.


I found that the program spell checked faster after I had added
the file that contained my words to the Main Dictionary than when
I used a Supplemental Dictionary than contained these words.


Here is a representative list of the type of "words" I added
successfully to WP 5.0's Main Dictionary.


*(HMEI=J
*(HMERW=N
*)/AREION
*)/EFESON
*)=ASSON
*)ADA\M
*)EGE/NETO
*)ELOGI/SQH
*)IA/SONA
<GA04.09>
<GA06.16>
<HE03.06>
<HE06.01>
<HE08.08>
<JA04.13>
<JA04.14>
<A--GM-P>
<A--GN-P>
<A--NF-S>
<A--NFXS>
<A--NM-S>
<A--NN-P>
<A--NN-S>
<A-CAF-P>
<A-CAM-P>
<AB>:<A--NF-S>
<AB>:<AP-AF-S>
<AB>:<AP-AF-S>,
<AB>:<AP-AF-S>:
<AB>:<AP-GF-S>
<AB>:<AP-NF-S>
KATAGA/GH!J
KATAPI/PTEIN
KATA\
KATEFI/LOUN
KATENEXQEI\J
KATERGAZOME/NOU


I have spoken on the phone several times with the personnel at
POLYGLOT, a firm in Boulder, Colorado, that markets JET:SPELL, a
multilingual spell checker. They have promised to let me know
what it would cost to do a custom version of their program, one
that would accept any printing character as a valid word
constituent. I'll pass this information along when I receive it.


Thanks, again, Don!


Sincerely,


John


John J. Hughes