31–40 of 335 posts
I like this app. However, most of my work Latex based. If you had something like this for Sublime Text, I would buy it.
It might have to deal with markdown.
I like this app. However, most of my work Latex based. If you had something like this for Sublime Text, I would buy it.
You know what's fun? Pasting in text from Ernest Hemingway and seeing what he did wrong. But seriously, this is a nice, simple way to point out some general rules of thumb for improving writing, although I would love for it to be less proscriptive. Not every long sentence is a bad sentence, not every passive-voice sentence is a bad sentence, and not every adverb is a bad adverb. Oh, and by the way, the copy editor in…
Even if you go in for prescriptive grammar, less and fewer were never strictly divided. The distinction actually came to us through one Mr. Baker's expressed preference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fewer_vs._less#Historical_usage
You know what's fun? Pasting in text from Ernest Hemingway and seeing what he did wrong. But seriously, this is a nice, simple way to point out some general rules of thumb for improving writing, although I would love for it to be less proscriptive. Not every long sentence is a bad sentence, not every passive-voice sentence is a bad sentence, and not every adverb is a bad adverb. Oh, and by the way, the copy editor in…
The thing about pedantic snark (less/fewer), is that it loses its teeth when you're wrong. Even if you go in for prescriptive grammar, less and fewer were never strictly divided. The distinction actually came to us through one Mr. Baker's expressed preference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fewer_vs._less#Historical_usage
But can we really trust this guy for historical precedent? He burnt the cakes!
Hemingway the writer actually wrote long sentences and they were actually important in his writing.
Passive is also important in good writing.
You can't use machine metrics to force "good writing" you can only enforce mediocrity and the following some random rules "because the rules have to be followed."
Likewise, I as a writer of the software would absolutely hate to run some program to tell me "this function has more than 10 lines" or whatever. If I wrote 500 lines function it doesn't mean it shouldn't be that long: there are examples where exactly such functions are still necessary and good. Such automatic evaluations are for managers who probably don't understand what they enforce. Pointy-haired bosses, if you will.
So I see HemingwayApp as the pointy-haired-editor app.
(Edit: Improving the text based on the human input, thanks Agathos!)
In good news, this app does a good job of handling complex sequences. Consider the sentence:
The quick, brown fox ran out of the clump of trees, saw us, got scared, and promptly ran back into hiding.
When I typed that, I expected it to turn red, but it didn't. Great job!
However, there is a problem with identifying adverbs. Consider the sentence, "He is a burly man." In this case, though burly ends with -ly (like adverbs), it is an adjective.
I believe the logic behind HemingwayApp is misguided: Hemingway the writer actually wrote long sentences and they were actually important in his writing. Passive is also important in good writing. You can't use machine metrics to force "good writing" you can only enforce mediocrity and the following some random rules "because the rules have to be followed." Likewise, I as a writer of the software would absolutely hat…
note: most programming syntax style applications have the ability to selectively highlight special cases to flag sections of code to ignore particular errors.
I believe the logic behind HemingwayApp is misguided: Hemingway the writer actually wrote long sentences and they were actually important in his writing. Passive is also important in good writing. You can't use machine metrics to force "good writing" you can only enforce mediocrity and the following some random rules "because the rules have to be followed." Likewise, I as a writer of the software would absolutely hat…