-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi all you writers out there,
My automatic diction and readability checking server is now available at: http://kandalaya.org/diction.html * What does it do? It checks uploaded plain-text, HTML and MS Word files for readability according to a number of metrics and shows the (IMO) nicely-formatted results. It checks documents for common diction errors and suggests potential improvements. * How much does it cost? Nothing. It's free, as in apples and as in speech. * How does it work? There are 3 phases: - - Convert the document to plain-text if necessary. Use Lynx for HTML->Text and wvText for Word->Text. - - Run the plain-text through the diction and style programs that are part of the GPL diction package available from http://www.gnu.org/ . - - Parse the resulting output and format into an HTML table and display to the user. All this is achieved through a Perl CGI script. * Why doesn't it accept OpenOffice files? StarOffice? Lotus? Product X? Show me a free command-line based program for converting these formats to plain-text and I'd be glad to add support. * This looks hot! Can I run this service on my site? Sure, give me a shout and I'll mail the 2 files that comprise it (diction.html and diction.cgi) to you. I'll probably release them somewhere, sometime but not immediately. You'll have to install the support packages yourself. If you can't do that I'd be glad to do it remotely for you for a small fee (typical small fee being half your kingdom and your daughter's hand in marriage). * Can I do anything with your program that I can't using software on my computer? No, it's just an easy-to-use wrapper around a number of free softwares. If you have a huge number of files to diction- and style-check I'd suggest downloading the diction package and running it locally. * I got an XXX Readability Index of Y.YY. What does it mean? Is my document completely unreadable? They're just numbers, y'know? Ignore them if you don't like them. Automatic evaluation of readability isn't really any substitute for peer and expert review. * What DO those numbers mean anyway? Ask the person who designed the metrics. I don't have a clue about readability or style, I just program and leave it to others to interpret the results. * I've got these sensitive documents that I need to check. Should I run them through your service? Probably not. All documents that are uploaded to the server are deleted after being checked, but software bugs, unscrupulous network admins or system crashes could cause your document to be retained or viewed by others. If that's an issue with you, check the dam' things on your own computer. * Your service sucks! The numbers are all wrong and the suggestions are worse than the original text! I'm going to do a SCO and sue you for 42 gazillion dollars! This service is brought to you on an AS-IS basis with no warranty, implied or otherwise. If it kills your cat, gets your mom-in-law run over by a bearded man in a speeding truck, downsizes your job or causes your computer to blow up into little pieces Raj Mathur is not liable. Go sue IBM, you #*&*&#! * I really like this service and want to show my appreciation in tangible ways. Can I send you something? Well, money's always nice. Apart from that I'd appreciate gifts of chhola-bhatura's, soda and chooran to wash the whole thing down :) Regards, - -- Raju - -- Raj Mathur [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F It is the mind that moves -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Processed by Mailcrypt 3.5.6 and Gnu Privacy Guard <http://www.gnupg.org/> iD8DBQE/k3ZUyWjQ78xo0X8RAtSCAJ9q9wdHBmUUHhD+gGfwEAhdnJ6rWQCfYyag ykAQGuBVEZliEYAJqIjsicA= =lTvm -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ ilugd mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
