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Vale.sh – A Linter for Prose

vale.sh

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Re: Vale.sh – A Linter for Prose

#71

Post by jackthetab »

xwowsersx wrote: post #23

This looks great! By the way, I can't be the only one using ChatGPT to rewrite docs and messages, right? I regularly tell ChatGPT: "Rewrite the following, don't make it too formal:.." or "rewrite the following optimizing for brevity:..." and it usually spits something out much clearer than my first revision. Sometimes there's just one sentence I was struggling to write clearly and this helps a ton. Really valuable in…

Nope, you're not the only one. I do the exact thing, including saying "Rewrite the following, don't make it too formal". I think the results are excellent.

Re: Vale.sh – A Linter for Prose

#72

Post by sidpatil »

jrm4 wrote: post #39

I'm trying to figure out why I instinctively hate this. I think it's probably because the purpose of computer languages is different from human language. It's certainly valuable to have a linter to make sure the code works, and there's probably value in "style" as well for readability. But when you get to human language, I don't know, feels like you have the potential to suck out soul/creativity etc. As in, I imagine…

It depends on what you're trying to communicate and why. Controlled languages [1] have been around for a while — the goal is to simplify the semantics and syntax, in order to improve consistency and ease of use/understanding.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_natural_language

Re: Vale.sh – A Linter for Prose

#73

Post by [deleted] »

jrm4 wrote: post #39

I'm trying to figure out why I instinctively hate this. I think it's probably because the purpose of computer languages is different from human language. It's certainly valuable to have a linter to make sure the code works, and there's probably value in "style" as well for readability. But when you get to human language, I don't know, feels like you have the potential to suck out soul/creativity etc. As in, I imagine…

[deleted]

Re: Vale.sh – A Linter for Prose

#74

Post by [deleted] »

xwowsersx wrote: post #23

This looks great! By the way, I can't be the only one using ChatGPT to rewrite docs and messages, right? I regularly tell ChatGPT: "Rewrite the following, don't make it too formal:.." or "rewrite the following optimizing for brevity:..." and it usually spits something out much clearer than my first revision. Sometimes there's just one sentence I was struggling to write clearly and this helps a ton. Really valuable in…

[deleted]

Re: Vale.sh – A Linter for Prose

#75

Post by User23 »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #49
mgaunard wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Acronyms and abbreviations are different things though.

A not-untypical style (as used by the BBC) is to write initialisms like UUID in all caps, and acronyms like Nasa in title case. Initialisms are pronounced by saying each letter in order. Acronyms are pronounced as if they were words. "ID" is a funny case because it's an ordinary abbreviation, and not really an initialism* or acronym, but it's pronounced just like an initialism. I think I'd prefer it "ID". I would def…

This is, to my half American ears, bizarre prescriptivism. We pronounce NASA as “nasa” and UUID as “yoo-id” (and GUID as “goo-id). And ID is pronounced “eye-dee.” And of course we pronounce OK (short for “oll korrect”) as “okay.”

Re: Vale.sh – A Linter for Prose

#76

Post by MilStdJunkie »

starkparker wrote: post #69
mooreds wrote: post #30

Have tried to use this a few times but it's a big lift. Like adding unit tests to an existing application, it's a good idea to start small. And vale doesn't make this super easy (at least I couldn't figure out an easy way to do this). If I could wave my wand, I'd want a way to: * apply vale to just the doc I was working on * have a minimal set of rules * add to them over time At $curjob, we have a detailed public lis…

Ironically, perhaps, considering its popularity among technical writers, Vale's documentation is ambiguous in places and difficult to navigate.

It's in keeping with traditional techpubs software being an unmitigated dumpster fire. :)

Not Vale, though. Vale's pretty slick; although personally I've always gravitated to RedPen.cc and LanguageTools[1] more than Vale. Grammarly, yes, Grammarly is also in this natlang linter space, but has possibly the least responsible data safety rules of any VSC extension I've ever seen. It's harsh, but I comprehensively advise customers away from Grammarly if they have any kind of data restriction at all.

[1] LT for no other reason than ASD STE-100 checking - it's old tech

Re: Vale.sh – A Linter for Prose

#77

Post by microflash »

I've been using Vale for several years now to steer my writing style. It is easy to customize and simple to work with. The only issue that I faced is that many available styles have too corporatey rules, which is why I'm maintaining my own style for personal writing.

Re: Vale.sh – A Linter for Prose

#78

Post by antiframe »

pjot wrote: post #19

My favorite is a tool called write-good https://github.com/btford/write-good

I'm curious what "native" means in write-good's description: "Naive linter for English prose for developers who can't write good and wanna learn to do other stuff good too." It appears to require a node server.

Re: Vale.sh – A Linter for Prose

#79

Post by uuuuuuuuuid »

User23 wrote: post #75
tomjakubowski wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A not-untypical style (as used by the BBC) is to write initialisms like UUID in all caps, and acronyms like Nasa in title case. Initialisms are pronounced by saying each letter in order. Acronyms are pronounced as if they were words. "ID" is a funny case because it's an ordinary abbreviation, and not really an initialism* or acronym, but it's pronounced just like an initialism. I think I'd prefer it "ID". I would def…

This is, to my half American ears, bizarre prescriptivism. We pronounce NASA as “nasa” and UUID as “yoo-id” (and GUID as “goo-id). And ID is pronounced “eye-dee.” And of course we pronounce OK (short for “oll korrect”) as “okay.”

Is “yoo-id” a common way of pronouncing UUID? I’ve only every spoken each letter in turn.

Re: Vale.sh – A Linter for Prose

#80

Post by dharmab »

uuuuuuuuuid wrote: post #79
User23 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is, to my half American ears, bizarre prescriptivism. We pronounce NASA as “nasa” and UUID as “yoo-id” (and GUID as “goo-id). And ID is pronounced “eye-dee.” And of course we pronounce OK (short for “oll korrect”) as “okay.”

Is “yoo-id” a common way of pronouncing UUID? I’ve only every spoken each letter in turn.

I've only ever heard U-U-I-D, but I've also heard GUID pronounced as a single syllable like Gwid.
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