AbiWord beats OpenOffice to a Grammar Checker

msevior writes "The recently released AbiWord-2.4 (downloads for Linux, OSX and Windows here ) is the first Free Word Processor to offer an integrated Grammar Checker. We can can do this because we're a pure GPL'd application and so can easily collaborate with other Freely licensed applications like link-grammar, gtkmathview and itex2mml which provide AbiWord-2.4 with a superb Latex-based Math feature. Sun's license requirements for OpenOffice.Org make it much more difficult for such collaborations to occur."

Comments

Sure

[slashflood]

[...] integrated Grammar Checker. We can can do this because [...]

:-)

Re:Sure

[Surt]

They do it by dancing the can can, I don't understand your problem with this claim? I mean sure, you have to get the DDR keyboard mod to do your coding, but those aren't so expensive as to make this claim implausible.

Pfft.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm laughing at all you AbiWord and OpenOffice users from my tower of Notepad!

This just in

[Transcendent]

Microsoft Office beats AbiWord to a grammer check. More at 11.

...oh wait.

Re:Good for you but no thanks

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't want a grammar checker. Prefer my brain. Thanks.

Warning: Sentence fragment.

Re:Usefulness?

[God'sDuck]

Okay then, translate "The window has been broken" into active voice.

"Windows is broken."

Re:Usefulness?

[uncqual]

Besides, cruise control lets you catch a little sleep while you drive.

Re:Usefulness?

[Anonymous Coward]

We can can do this because we're a pure GPL'd application

Well, it would have been useful for instance to check the submission for glaring errors.

REduplicated?

[Anonymous Coward]

From the Department of Redundannt Brain Farts Department, no doubt. :-)

Re:A Writer's Experiences

[Strolls]

...particularly if you write fiction and technical works (as I do.)

It looks like you're writing a Haynes manual. Would you like me to:

• specify the wrong torque-setting for the head nuts
• lie about the location of the alternator on post-1997 models
• just replace this entire section with "reassembly is the opposite of disassembly"?

Re:Usefulness?

[omeomi]

"The unit was strapped in."

You've also ended a sentence with a preposition, which you're not supposed to do... ;-)

Re:LaTeX

[Seanasy]

Poor phrasing kills the point though.

If only they had some technology built into their word processor to help with this...

Re:Usefulness?

[Pollardito]

But if X is both ambiguous and unimportant, you're just communicating useless information.

how about this then? "it doesn't matter who is carrying the food...you insensitive clod" i think that conveys even more meaning

Re:Usefulness?

[Pete]

Krach42:

There's god damn nothing wrong with the Passive Voice except that it has a stigmatic notion in English.

Yeah... and there's god damn nothing wrong with murder except that it has a stigmatic notion in most civilised societies. *ahem* :-)

I prefer the active voice in writing for one simple and personal reason - too much passive voice gives me a headache and makes it difficult for me to concentrate. A sprinkling of passive voice is fine for variety, but a document written predominantly (or exclusively) in passive voice is a horrible thing to read.

In German, it has a air of respectability to it over the active voice.

It's interesting that you emphasise the "respectability" aspect of passive voice in German, as in my experience people (over-)use passive voice in English for exactly the same reason. They think it makes the writing seem more formal, more detached. More "respectable".

I find overuse of passive voice in English is a hint that the writer is insecure about their writing - especially in a supposedly "formal" document. So they overcompensate by going nuts with the passive voice. Or, as you describe with your dad below, they've just been taught to use passive voice for certain kinds of writing (with really weak justifications for that teaching - but hey, what employee is going to argue with their bosses' justifications?).

He worked on process documents and reports. The idea is that you put everything in the passive, because the agents of the senteces are not to be indicated.

For most types of writing, one of the goals is to make it easy for the reader to understand - to omit needless words. For "process" documents or legal documents, however, the goal is exactly the opposite - the goal is to cause the reader maximum pain and to obscure useful information (while making sure that information is still technically present).

Given the above, your dad's experience in writing everything in passive voice is perfectly reasonable. ;-)

Re:Usefulness?

[eobanb]

passive voice is disfavored Ahem..