Aucbvax.2341
fa.works
utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!works
Sat Jul 18 02:58:59 1981
Ideal word-processor
>From REM@MIT-MC Sat Jul 18 02:51:45 1981
I wish EMACS/RMAIL had this, but maybe if I suggest it this
feature will be installed in some future text-processing system:
You're rapidly typing new text into this editor program. As you
type, in parallel with your typing, the spelling&grammar-corrector
is checking your text. When it finds an apparent error it flags
the error and indicates alongside it a suggested correction.
Any time you want, without having to manually put the cursor back
there and manually make the correction, you may enter one of three
commands:
Stet (ignore the error, let it stand without correction)
Ok correction (make the correction it guessed at)
Repair manually (automatically put cursor there, then you
manually fix it however you want, then if the spelling
corrector still doesn't your fix it shows its new best
guess at correction and leaves the cursor there, so you
can Stet or Ok or Repair again)
After satisfying the flagged apparent error by Stet or Ok, it
shows you the next apparent error if there is any pending; but
you may just continue typing normally if you don't feel like
handling the new apparent error immediately. If you're a bad
speller, what you'd probably do is type a half a screenful
then sit there giving the Ok command for a whole batch of
errors it found, then go back to typing. Thus you wouldn't
have to constantly check your typing to see if keystrokes were
lost or words you're not sure of were wrong. If both the word
you typed and the suggested correction were wrong, but you're
lazy (it isn't an important document nor a submission to a
mass-mailing such as WORKS, just an informal note to a friend),
you could just Stet the error if it's not too gross. You could
even let the suggested corrections roll off the screen, not
bothering to even check them for grossness, if you're really
in a hurry (thus it would degenerate to what we have now if
you choose not to actually use the info the spelling-corrector
gives you).
With a Xerox-Smalltalk style of user interface, you could easily
random-access the suggested corrections, manually fixing the
gross ones and then Steting or Oking all the others en masse.
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