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From: prisant@duke.cs.duke.edu (Michael G. Prisant)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Grammar Checker for TeX files
Keywords: tex, grammar
Message-ID: <659999439@romeo.cs.duke.edu>
Date: 30 Nov 90 21:10:40 GMT
References: <1962@aber-cs.UUCP>
Distribution: eunet,world
Organization: Duke University Computer Science Dept.; Durham, N.C.
Lines: 35


Does a grammar checker exist for documents formatted in TeX or LaTeX?

I am currently looking for some sort of style checker to review my
documents.  Even a utility which offered primitive checking for
repeated words would be helpful.

Of course a number of grammer checkers exist for Macintosh 
and PC word processors:  these are commercial products.  However, I
also understand that a style checker exists for nroff/troff documents 
which analyzes surface characteristics of sentences such as length 
and use of the passive voice. Apparently a diction utility also exists
for nroff/troff files which identifies poorly worded or verbose
phrases in a document.  The utilities "deroff" the document before
analysis and contain features specific to nroff/troff formatting.
These utilities must be very close to what is needed for TeX files.
I suppose they could be modified or made part of a shell script kludge
but it would of course be nicer to
have something specifically designed for documents formatted
in TeX/LaTeX. 

I have checked a number of the standard TeX public archives for such
a utility but without any luck.

Any help which readers of this Newsgroup might offer me in locating
even a primitive utility would be most appreciated.  May I ask
that people respond to me directly via e-mail as well as posting
to this group.  I will summarize responses that I receive.

Michael G. Prisant (919) 684 2830
prisant@romeo.cs.duke.edu

Department of Chemistry
Duke University
Durham NC 27706