kill your darlings

kill your darlings

[Emanuel Berg via help-gnu-emacs]

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

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

Re: kill your darlings

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2019-06-24, at 10:42, Richard Melville <6tricky9@gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.

Wow, you made my day!

Seriously though, there _are_ things like that.  I never used proselint
(http://proselint.com/), but it seems to do a similar thing - though it
detects common mistakes (and things perceived as mistakes in our stupid
times, apparently), and Emanuel wanted something that could somehow
detect peculiarities of style of a particular person.  I'm pretty sure
it's doable, though I know only a very, very little about natural
language processing to provide any details.

Doing statistics might be more difficult in languages with a lot of
inflections (like Polish or Latin).  English is way simpler wrt that;
I have no idea about Swedish (though it's not easy to imagine it being
more difficult than Polish;-)).

Best,

--
Marcin Borkowski
http://mbork.pl

Re: kill your darlings

[Emanuel Berg via help-gnu-emacs]

Richard Melville wrote:

>> Is there anything like that going on
>> anywhere in the Emacs world?
>
> Yes, it's called proofreading.

This would be a tool to assist doing that, if
you will.

I actually think I program could be a good
help... and it would also be interesting to run
on your texts and have the program tell you
what words and patterns you are repeating!

Perhaps this wouldn't tell you anything about
you as a person, like in what way you are crazy
or anything like that, because there are many
people with similar interests that have totally
different personalities. OTOH language and
communication must be a big part of who we are,
bigger than what sports we follow or what type
of vehicle we prefer. Or are sports and
vehicles just examples of things that lie much
deeper, perhaps as deep as communication?
Altho communication is actually what comes _up_
from the depths???

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573
https://dataswamp.org/~incal