Helping people write better / grading readability

[jancborchardt]

We could have a mode which helps people write better by rating the readability of their text. This mostly applies if you work on blog posts or essays. I’m imagining something similar to https://hemingwayapp.com, https://www.grammarly.com/, https://quillbot.com/, https://prowritingaid.com/ – etc.

In write mode:

In edit mode (as in "being the Editor"):

[juliusknorr]

Looks interesting, I found https://languagetool.org/ which is open source and support multiple languages, but it is Java based and requires running an additional service http://wiki.languagetool.org/http-server

[jancborchardt]

There’s also these posts on deconstructing and building Hemingway in Javascript (it’s only a very early beginning):

• https://dev.to/samwsoftware/deconstructing-the-hemingway-app-390
• https://dev.to/samwsoftware/creating-my-own-hemingway-app-143

[conloos]

Hi,

I had in the duplicated ticket: #497 noted that it would be good to design the extension so that the "http-api" from languagetool is used by default and if you have your own server, you can overwrite the destination address.

Thanks Frank

[juliusknorr]

I had in the duplicated ticket: #497 noted that it would be good to design the extension so that the "http-api" from languagetool is used by default and if you have your own server, you can overwrite the destination address.

I don't think we should use their public API by default, since this would mean we transfer user data to a 3rd party without consent. It would be fine as an advanced setting I'd say.

[jancborchardt]

Also for reference what word in Microsoft 365 does (more details in the blog post):

Direct link to GIF (too large for GitHub embed): https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Microsoft-Editor-in-Word.gif

[brainchild0]

It seems impossible to create an algorithm that satisfies everyone as a means to superior style in some particular natural language. Hemmingway had particular ideas about style that many favor, but he is not objectively better than everyone else who has ever written in English.

It is interesting to consider an extensions interface by which the user can select among various choices of interactive style aids.

I tend to think that exclusive support for a single algorithm will frustrate at least as many users as it will make happy, and I would speculate that some of the most frustrated users will be some of the best writers!