Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!midway!dwal
From: dwal@midway.uchicago.edu (David Walton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Finder 7.0 suggestion
Summary: I don't want no Spelling Mismanager in MY System 7.0, nope...
Message-ID: <1990Jul14.010501.6061@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 14 Jul 90 01:05:01 GMT
References: <2695@<956> <70500015@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Organization: U. Chicago Computing Organizations, Academic and Public Comp.
Lines: 52

In article <70500015@m.cs.uiuc.edu> gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>> It would be nice if System7 had a Spelling Manager with a standard
>> dictionary and the ability to add specialized dictionaries
>> (Engineering, Medical, etc.).
>
>Better yet, system 7.0 needs a "word-stream" manager -- a program that
>lets you pipe text through a processing program.  Especially:
>
>(1) spelling checkers.
>(2) grammar checkers.
>(3) machine translation programs.
>
>The piping should be sufficiently general that it does the right thing
>with tables, PICTs, and equations.  I can't stand MS-Word, which tries
>to spell-check variable name (x1, x2a2, ...) in my mathematical papers.
>
>The program should also allow you to pipe a PICT through the manager.
>Then we could
>(1) spell-check pictures
>(2) check for outrageous mistakes in pictures, such as
>   (a) two points that differ by some small epsilon
>	(the user would probably like to make them the same point)
>   (b) objects smaller than a certain size (garbage)
>   (c) invisible objects (completely obscured by others, or filled by nothing)
>   (d) lines at non-standard angles.
>   (e) etc. etc. etc. etc.

There's really no need for something that specific: System 7.0's
InterApplication Communication model already provides a foundation for
doing this sort of thing.  Process-to-process communication,
especially in the form of AppleEvents, is designed for sending
information and commands between programs to do exactly the type of
thing you're suggesting.  Apple hasn't actually designed a stream
Manager with the functions that you describe, probably because they
wanted to leave something for the developers to do.  I also suspect
that Apple System Software Engineers probably have better things to
worry about than standardizing a Spelling dictionary.  In a previous
message, somebody mentioned Feature Creep, and I think it applies very
well.

I'm curious, too, about the possible features which you mentioned.  Do
you really want software that second-guesses your intent to the extent
of weeding out objects smaller than an arbitrary size, or 'fixing'
your angles because they're improper?  I'd sure want to have a backup
copy before I submitted my work to software like that...:-)

-- 

David Walton		Internet: dwal@tank.uchicago.edu
University of Chicago   {  Any opinions found herein are mine, not  }
Computing Organizations {  those of my employers (or anybody else). }