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Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

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Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#22
post #15
post #12

A similar editor was made for the book Thing Explainer[1] by Randal Munroe from XKCD. A book that explains all kinds of different things, from space shuttles to microwaves using the top 1000 common English words. [1] https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/

I should of read everything first and would of saw the reference already made... My bad

Just a small nit: The words sound alike but they mean different things. You should have read everything, then you would have seen the reference. Source: grammer.

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#24
Am I the only one to find that using only the 1,000 most common words actually makes thing harder to understand? The writer ends up having to use convoluted paraphrases to refer to things where a precise, well defined and well understood word exists but it's not part of the top 1,000.

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#25
Joke aside, there are ways to compute a "readability score" for any block of text. This is useful for document writers that need to target particular grade-levels for their docs (eg driving manual is "8th grade"). https://readability-score.com/

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#27

Unclear on why this is a good thing. Dumbing down language helps whom, exactly? I guess if you want to hasten the Idiocracy this is your app.

Writing so that children, people for whom English is a second language, and people otherwise unable to comprehend advanced writing, can understand you is not a bad thing.

I'm considering applying this to my product documentation, even though our users are generally well-educated...we can't afford to have docs translated into a dozen languages, but simple English may be readable by enough foreign language speakers to make it worth the effort. English is a tough language; making it easier for new users of the language is great, IMHO.

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#28
It should support a few template sentences which define a word, which is then allowed to occur in the remainder of the text.

More useful than a document which uses only 1000 common words is a document which uses only 1000 words, plus words which it clearly defines.

I feel as if I could write almost anything if I have that, and it will be self-contained and accessible to anyone with the thousand word vocabulary, plus the ability to internalize definitions, which is a very basic faculty of the intellect.

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#29

Am I the only one to find that using only the 1,000 most common words actually makes thing harder to understand? The writer ends up having to use convoluted paraphrases to refer to things where a precise, well defined and well understood word exists but it's not part of the top 1,000.

You're not the only one. Words exist exactly to avoid the problem this app creates..

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#30
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should of read everything first and would of saw the reference already made... My bad

Just a small nit: The words sound alike but they mean different things. You should have read everything, then you would have seen the reference. Source: grammer.

Just a small nit: The words sound alike but they mean different things.

"Grammer" is a German company making automotive components.

"Grammar" is the thing with words'n sentences'n shit.

Just sayin' ;)

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