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Rationale
There was some discussion on the Fedora site about this already, but not much action as yet. However they did say that this was in their plans. The idea is that for spell checking, grammar checking, and language settings, the tool used should be "common" to all of the applications making use of those services. In other words the API call to spell check a word should be identical whether it be executed while in Open Office Writer or writing a new EMail in Evolution. Of course this would require a lot of new coding and a clear cooperation between many different projects. While this represents a huge undertaking, it is most worthwhile in the long run. We could name it the CLT Project (Common Language Tools Project). M$ has already done something like this because the 3rd party who developed their spell/grammar checker for Office created an API for use in other Windows apps. And every other application developer seems to have jumped on that bandwagon.
One primary reason for doing this CLT Project is that it will make Ubuntu (as well as other distros and linux apps) much more attractive to Professional Translators. My wife is one such translator, so I have a vested interest, you might say.
Another good reason to get started on the CLT Project is that it demonstrates the competence in good design principles of the Linux community. As one Fedora developer said..."to develop language packages for each and every app is just plain stupid". It means that there is a humongous duplication of effort that is spread over the entire Linux community...unnecessarily. It will of course take time for other projects to take full advantage of such a tool. But the sooner we get started, the more benefits will be realized by the entire Linux community.
Just my two cents worth.
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litamus
wrote on the 1 Oct 08 at 18:26
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dupe
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adelie
wrote on the 1 Oct 08 at 21:00
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There are several spell checkers, and they all work on basically the same principle. Each time you finish typing a word, in whatever word processor you are using, it checks to see that it is the type of character series to be spell checked, then 'greps' the word from the designated dictionary.
Standards are great, but there are reasons why projects split. For example, I think it has greatly helped Ubuntu to effectively not take sides between KDE and Gnome, a very heated issue for some, but I digress. There are spelling tools that are more commonly used by different projects, and there are reasons why they pick them. A common API is a development issue, not a user issue, and IMHO, if there is a particular project / office suite that could use improved support for language switching or support for a specific language, that group needs to be notified more directly. Otherwise you can end up with a lot of agreement without a lot of action.
Having one way of doing things hasn't really been the Linux way in my observation, for better or for worse.
If I misunderstood what you were suggesting, please provide some more specific details.
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andruk
(Idea reviewer)
wrote on the 2 Oct 08 at 01:49
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A common grammar checking library is humorous, as it seems to this newbie-programmer that every language would have to have its own grammar rules and dictionaries.
Competition among (keyword:) good frameworks, (key phrase:) so long as both are supported by the majority of applications, is perfectly fine with me. Competition, even amongst open source projects encourages growth and innovation (as somebody pointed out, look at KDE and GNOME for a perfect example), as the competition means that nobody can just say, "well our solution is the only Linux solution, so you're just going to have to deal with it".
It seems that the Fedora folks are trying to integrate a lot of projects, like a single music database for your entire music collection that music players can access, and now this. Integration has generally been where Linux has failed in the past, so let the integration commence!
+1
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andruk
(Idea reviewer)
wrote on the 2 Oct 08 at 02:00
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I would also like to add that the current authentication scheme is also slightly half-baked, as it works for some applications (like ssh), but not Firefox or Thunderbird. In order to encrypt the password file in Thunderbird, I have to enter my master password, but Thunderbird handles prompting me for the master password, instead of asking Seahorse for it. Seems tighter integration (but only when Seahorse is installed) would be nice (this has already been reported as an idea).
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"and there are reasons why they pick them."
Such as?
"Having one way of doing things hasn't really been the Linux way in my observation, for better or for worse."
That seems completely backwards. Since this is open source, the best way is to combine effort between all the different people who make spell checkers, and make one spell checker that has the benefits of all the others wrapped up into one that can then be used by all applications. "Do One Thing, and Do It Well"
"A common grammar checking library is humorous, as it seems to this newbie-programmer that every language would have to have its own grammar rules and dictionaries."
A common grammar checking library for all *applications*, not for all languages. So that developers aren't wasting their time re-inventing the wheel for every new program that has text input boxes.
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