Re: kill your darlings

[Richard Melville]

On Mon, 24 Jun 2019 at 05:13, Emanuel Berg via help-gnu-emacs <
help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org> wrote:

> Everyone knows that everyone use their favorite
> constructs in peach and in writing. E.g.,
> I like to use "e.g.", and I like to end
> sentences with something like "for sure" -
> no doubt :)
>
> On a mailing list this is not really a problem.
> But for e.g. in a relationship in can become
> very enervating, without exaggerating :) (Okay,
> you get it, I'll stop now. Or will I...)
>
> We can't (?) program our relationships with
> Elisp, but I wonder if there is a tool or
> method to detect "darlings" in a text.
> For example, I'm writing a LaTeX text now - it
> isn't even halfway done, but currently at
> 1965 lines, I have used the word "emellertid"
> 8 times (it means "however" but sounds more
> stiff and old-fashioned) - and if I weren't
> aware of it, it'd be a good idea if Emacs could
> tell me I overused the word, so I could
> consider removing some of them. And perhaps
> (actually it is likely) there are other of my
> "darlings" that I *am* unaware of!
>
> The kind of stuff I described first, with
> sentence constructions and so on, I get it it
> is probably very difficult for a computer
> program to detect. But overuse of words could
> be as simple as
>
> - count all words
>
> - see what words are the most common
>
> - are there word there that much longer than
>   the others? warn the user about possible
>   overuse
>
> - obviously, if one is writing a paper on the
>   mating process of the Trigonosaurus, one
>   would simply disregard the recommendation to
>   not use that wierd word all the time
>
> - to compare the text to the Internet would be
>   a possibility, but I don't really like it.
>   It would mean the program would try to make
>   you write like everyone else. That's not the
>   point: the point is to make you aware of
>   something, that you might be unaware of!
>
> Is there anything like that going on anywhere
> in the Emacs world?
>
> --
> underground experts united
> http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573
> https://dataswamp.org/~incal


Yes, it's called proofreading.

Richard