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Show HN: Refine – A Local Alternative to Grammarly

refine.sh

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Re: Show HN: Refine – A Local Alternative to Grammarly

#61

Post by dkga »

beAbU wrote: post #59
dreamcompiler wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So apparently the tool is slanted toward American English where the non-word practise is properly treated as a spelling error like colour . If you use these words in writing for Americans and you are not a citizen of the British Commonwealth, you instantly mark yourself as arrogant.

> and you are not a citizen of the British Commonwealth What do you regard as the British Commonwealth, and what variant of English spelling to you expect people to use who are not part of this grouping? Just so that you know, in case you don't, "US English" is used just about exclusively in the US, and UK English is used in most of the rest of the world, despite the fact that most of our devices incorrectly default…

I work at an international organisation, and can confirm. My understanding is that is that at the international level, only the US-based international organisations use US English.

To be sure, I don‘t have any dog in this fight, just highlighting a fact from my experience that many here might not know.

Re: Show HN: Refine – A Local Alternative to Grammarly

#63

Post by raincole »

londons_explore wrote: post #27

> Powered by local AI models I worry that this will make my writing more likely to fail an AI coursework detector, which could really impact my life. The risk just isn't worth it till someone has tested the output through all the big players (turnitin etc.)

If I use correct punctuation marks my work will be more likely to be \detected\ as AI written; The risk just isn"t worth it so I never do that^

Re: Show HN: Refine – A Local Alternative to Grammarly

#64

Post by dkga »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #55
raegis wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just tested both on the text "Look Dick. See Jane. Jane run home. I says you go home to. They eats dinner." LanguageTool does what I would expect. Harper does not. However, both whine about two spaces after a period. Edit: Alas, Hacker News also removes the extra space after periods.

Extra space after periods is never correct with proportionally-spaced fonts, which is why all browsers remove it by default. Two spaces after periods is a kludge invented for typewriters that had monospaced fonts and touch typing teachers need to stop teaching it in the modern era where most writing uses proportional fonts.

Curiously, it‘s also a tell-tale sign that a North-American typed the text.

Re: Show HN: Refine – A Local Alternative to Grammarly

#65

Post by JLCarveth »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #50
cjs_ac wrote: post #25

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…

So apparently the tool is slanted toward American English where the non-word practise is properly treated as a spelling error like colour . If you use these words in writing for Americans and you are not a citizen of the British Commonwealth, you instantly mark yourself as arrogant.

Americans finding anyone else arrogant is quite rich.

Re: Show HN: Refine – A Local Alternative to Grammarly

#66

Post by projektfu »

physicsguy wrote: post #42
tossandthrow wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get this. > ... in 'full fat' English ... English is a bastard of a language and getting messier every day as new nations adopt it is their standard language. Setting the bar where it is well written and unambiguously understandable is IMHO completely fine for a 15$ product. Having a text spell checked to comply with contemporary Oxford English is likely not the goal of this product.

You still need to adapt it to where you are though, people expect this because it causes misunderstandings. If I as a British person go to the US, I know that I can't ask people to go and buy some booze from the off-license and when finished ask them to put their aluminium can in the bin ready for the rubbish lorry while wearing their jumper because that sounds anachronistic.

Not too mention that a jumper in the US is closer to a pinafore.

Re: Show HN: Refine – A Local Alternative to Grammarly

#70

Post by drowe859 »

jasekt wrote: post #33

Wonderful! I've given it a go, works in Apple's Notes app, but it does not seem to trigger suggestions in Chrome, Firefox or Slack. It does however highlight misspellings there. Any idea what can I do to enable suggestions there? I was looking for a product like this.

Same! Interested in this but need it to work for Slack, where I often type more informally and don't take the time I should to proofread.
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