ruslan@uncecs.edu (Robin C. LaPasha) (04/30/91)
I just saw a Safe Harbor catalog listing "Proper Grammar" for about $60. Now, I've been looking for a grammar checker for some time (not wanting to pay the mongo bucks for Reason, you see.) Does anybody know whether: - Proper Grammar IS a grammar checker; - it's any good?; and - it's put out by a reputable company? Post or email at your discretion (other folks have occasionally asked as well) but if I've hit the wrong group again please keep the flamage to email. ;^) Thanks in advance. -- Robin LaPasha |Keeper of the Amiga ruslan@ecsvax.uncecs.edu |Hypermedia Mailing List
dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com (Dennis Heffernan) (05/01/91)
In article <1991Apr30.150435.24560@uncecs.edu> ruslan@uncecs.edu (Robin C. LaPasha) writes: | |I just saw a Safe Harbor catalog listing "Proper Grammar" for |about $60. Now, I've been looking for a grammar checker for |some time (not wanting to pay the mongo bucks for Reason, you |see.) Does anybody know whether: | - Proper Grammar IS a grammar checker; | - it's any good?; and | - it's put out by a reputable company? | |Post or email at your discretion (other folks have occasionally |asked as well) but if I've hit the wrong group again please keep |the flamage to email. ;^) I have it, but I can't tell you anything about it other than what the manual says and what the advertising hype says. Reason: Softwood (the makers) sent me two program disks, instead of a program and a system disk. #$@%! It IS a grammar checker. It supposedly uses the Houghton-Mifflin CorrecText system, which if I recall correctly is used on lots of those stand- alone super typerwriters/quasi-wordpros. It reads and writes just about every wordpro format used on the Amiga, but according to the manual will puke mightily on WordPerfect (there's a list of about a billion formatting instructions that will get lost in the process). I should have a replacement disk in a few days, but until then I can't vouch for the quality. When I get it, I'll review it on .reviews, if there's demand. For now, I'd say that if it does what the manual says it does, it should be pretty useful. (Except that the ARexx docs are woefully incomplete and suggest a deficient rexx interface.) dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com ...uunet!tronsbox!dfrancis GEnie: D.HEFFERNAN1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "I swear eternal hostility to all forms of tyranny over the Amiga OS." --me, with apologies to Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Addington :-)
Dickson@system-m.phx.bull.com (Paul Dickson) (05/02/91)
Yes, Proper Grammar is a grammar checker as well as a spell checker. A demo of this software is planned at the AAUG meeting at the end of next week. It was originally planned for two months ago, but last minute bug fixes prevented the attendance by the author. Send me email to remind we to send my impressions here if you don't see anything in two weeks.
accangel@amix.commodore.com (Mark Gardner) (05/02/91)
ruslan@uncecs.edu (Robin C. LaPasha) writes: > > I just saw a Safe Harbor catalog listing "Proper Grammar" for > about $60. Now, I've been looking for a grammar checker for > some time (not wanting to pay the mongo bucks for Reason, you > see.) Does anybody know whether: > - Proper Grammar IS a grammar checker; > - it's any good?; and > - it's put out by a reputable company? Proper Grammar is a grammar checker by SoftWood, the same folks who did Pen Pal and Electric Thesaurus. I haven't seen anything other than a press release from SoftWood about it, which I can't seem to locate in my black-hole-cum-filing-system. From what I dimly remember, it looks to be pretty good, and has the same "look-and-feel" as Electric Thesaurus. Hope this helps. > > Post or email at your discretion (other folks have occasionally > asked as well) but if I've hit the wrong group again please keep > the flamage to email. ;^) > > Thanks in advance. > -- > Robin LaPasha |Keeper of the Amiga > ruslan@ecsvax.uncecs.edu |Hypermedia Mailing List -MG "I dunt ned a spel chekr or no grammer progrem." ---------- Mark Gardner UUCP: uunet!cbmvax!amix!undrground!accangel Internet: undrground!accangel@amix.commodore.com
dlarson@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dale Larson) (05/02/91)
In article <1596@tronsbox.xei.com> dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com (Dennis Heffernan) writes: >In article <1991Apr30.150435.24560@uncecs.edu> ruslan@uncecs.edu (Robin C. LaPasha) writes: >| (I've taken the liberty of re-introducing some of the material from Robin's posting of the advertisment, though a little out-of-order) >wordpro format used on the Amiga, but according to the manual will puke mightily >on WordPerfect (there's a list of about a billion formatting instructions that ^^^^^^^^^^^ >will get lost in the process). >| o can be used with >| - Word Perfect (TM), ProWrite (TM), Pen Pal (TM), TextCraft Plus (TM), >| ^^^^^^^^^^^^ Softwood looks to be claiming WordPerfect as first on it's list of compatibility in it's advertising but disclaiming a loss of WP formatting information in the manual. But since I haven't seen the ad or the manual... >| o utilizes the Houghton Mifflin CorrecText Grammar Correction system >| - expert system that uses context-sensitive rules of grammar to >| analyze writing >| - identifys grammatical function and relationships among words >| o interactive grammar correction >| o checks for grammatical errors, spelling, punctuation and style >| o lets you make changes as errors are detected I'd appreciate someone with Perfect Grammar telling me just what this means in real terms. What grammatical errors can this "expert system" detect and how accurately? What will go unnoticed some (or most or all) of the time? Can it unfailingly find incorrect homynyms (i.e. two vs. to vs. too), for example? How often can it correctly tell me that I've used a period when I should have used a question mark. I might be asking too much of today's state-of-the-art in expert systems, but how could I ask too much of something called "Perfect Grammar?" >| o supports ARexx and clipboard Would be cool to have a TurboText macro that could copy just comment lines to the clipboard and have them grammar checked... > >vouch for the quality. When I get it, I'll review it on .reviews, if there's >demand. For now, I'd say that if it does what the manual says it does, it Please do, or, at the very least, email me. -- Dale Larson, Software Engineer, Amiga Network Development dlarson@cbmvax.commodore.com "A distributed system is one that stops you from getting any work done when a machine you've never even heard of crashes" -Lamport
drtiller@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Donald Richard Tillery Jr) (05/04/91)
Is there a demo version of this or a sample before/after text file "corrected" by it (knowing full well that it could be tampered with and taking it in that context)? Rick Tillery (drtiller@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu)