211–220 of 220 posts
Does anyone know how this compares to other products in its field, such as LanguageTool and Harper? LanguageTool can be hosted locally, and Harper runs entirely as an extension, so I'm interested in how the spelling and grammar checks compare.
+1. Also worth noting that both LanguageTool [0] and Harper [1] are FOSS. [0] https://languagetool.org/ [1] https://writewithharper.com/
The screenshot shows the (corrected) example sentence: > Sometimes I still make mistakes with articles and prepositions, but my grammar is getting better every day I practice. In American/Simplified English, this is grammatically correct. However, in 'full fat' English, practice is a noun, whereas practise is a verb; e.g. : > I go to my practice to practise medicine. The problem I have with this website is that it's…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fluent American readers are likely to think "practise" is a typo. It's not even one of the commonly-known British/American spelling differences (like "color"/"colour"). Unless you know your audience is likely to be more familiar with British spelling, I'd avoid "practise."
They're not very smart then: most non-native people know there are several big mainstream ways to spell English, and we learn that on top of our own languages. Couldn't American schools teach English the same way, like, that there are no single proper way ?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I learned that both exist in school in France. It doesn't matter, I write both interchangeably and nobody ever cared nor corrected me.
Yes, we also had lessons about the differences between BE and AE so we are aware of both, it is just that when Brian was in the kitchen, he was asking about the colour of something. The reference to Brian being in the kitchen is understandable only for Gen X in France. ( https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_is_Brian%3F , only in French unfortunately but you also have https://youtu.be/11jG7lkwDwU?si=gQoVL_AmBfQMrZbX&t=…
No API to hook into one's favorite tools, such as emacs.
Languagetool is an open source tool you can run as a local spelling and grammar checker. It's different to Grammarly - less AI and more rules based. I often use both tools at the same time. I wrote a quick intro on how to self host this - https://martincapodici.com/2025/05/10/check-your-writing-usi... .
LanguageTool only works in the browser though, as far as I can tell?
They don't advertise this because they are trying to push their paid online services. I have complained about this, but they didn't seem to care.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, we also had lessons about the differences between BE and AE so we are aware of both, it is just that when Brian was in the kitchen, he was asking about the colour of something. The reference to Brian being in the kitchen is understandable only for Gen X in France. ( https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_is_Brian%3F , only in French unfortunately but you also have https://youtu.be/11jG7lkwDwU?si=gQoVL_AmBfQMrZbX&t=…
Not "only" come on, I'm a little bit younger and I know it too ahah You even linked a youtube video, which I assume is the sketch in question (at work, no youtube): we can look at things from the past and learn them too !
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where is "here"?
I believe at least in all of Eastern Europe (including those guys who call themselves Central :wink:) US English dominates in pop culture, and business. I also used to work with a few Italians, and Portuguese and they all wrote US En too, so I suspect it's the same for them too.
There is no guarantee that this software will not occasionally start acting as a keylogger. If somehow this happens (let's assume not intentionally), will it be the direct responsibility of the author? Legally, there is no entity behind that responsible for privacy (1), and honestly, I don't see even minimal reason to trust this software from a legal perspective. 1. https://refine.sh/privacy-policy
There's no reason to trust it from a technical perspective either. The app is unsandboxed. Easy enough to check from the CLI. codesign --display --verbose=4 Refine.app 2>&1 | grep sandbox Apple provides a network client entitlement[1] that sandboxed apps must have, to connect to the network. Since this app isn't sandboxed, that restriction doesn't apply. Personally, I only use software that was either built on my mac…
Many popular apps, like Grammarly and Raycast, are also not sandboxed for the same reason. Without these APIs, Refine wouldn’t be able to provide a seamless text refinement experience. Otherwise, why wouldn’t we just use ChatGPT to correct the grammar?