Users
If you just want to install and use the Irish grammar checker, you probably don't need to download anything from this site. The easiest thing to do is to install the Perl module Lingua::GA::Gramadoir as described below; you'll then be able to run the grammar checker from the command-line, or else use it in conjunction with your favorite text editor.
Developers
All developers will need the latest version of the developers' pack, which contains the scripts for converting rule sets into an installable Perl module.
All of the language-dependent input files used by the developers' pack (lexicons, rule sets, etc.) are contained in the following language packs:
- gramadoir-ga (Irish)
Command-Line Installation and Usage
Linux and Mac OS X
For Mac OS X, if you don't like installing packages from the command line, you can buy a standalone version of the grammar checker called Ceart, produced in collaboration with Cruinneog.
The Irish grammar checker is distributed as the Perl module Lingua::GA::Gramadoir. If you are using Linux or some other Unix-like operating system (including Mac OS X), you surely already have Perl installed and you can install the module using CPAN.pm, for example, like this:
$ cpan cpan> install Lingua::GA::Gramadoir
You probably need to have root permission to do this; if you don't, or you don't know what this means, ask a system administrator for help. Also, if this is the first time you're running cpan, you'll be guided through some configuration steps before you can do the installation.
Alternatively, you can also install everything by hand: download Lingua::GA::Gramadoir, unpack the archive, and try the following standard procedure:
$ perl Makefile.PL $ make $ make install
You should now have the front-end script gram-ga.pl installed. To check the grammar of an Irish language text file called gaeilge.txt, use the following from the shell prompt:
$ gram-ga.pl gaeilge.txt
More detailed usage instructions can be found using:
$ gram-ga.pl --help
Windows
Things are somewhat more painful if you're running something like Windows.
- Install the latest version of ActiveState Perl.
- Go the DOS prompt (for the youngsters, you can get there by going to Start->Accessories->Command Prompt)
- Enter perl -v to verify that perl was installed correctly and is in your path; you should see something like this:
C:> perl -v This is perl, v.5.8.6 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread (with 3 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail) Copyright 1987-2004, Larry Wall ...
- Now install An Gramadóir using the ActivePerl package manager
ppm:
C:> ppm ppm> install Lingua::GA::Gramadoir ppm> quit
- You should now have the front-end script
gram-ga.pl installed. Unfortunately, by default DOS isn't
capable of displaying the ANSI control codes that are
used to highlight the errors in color. Also, you need to
tell An Gramadóir to display messages
in the default DOS character encoding (ibm-850).
Therefore, to check an Irish language text file called gaeilge.txt,
use the following:
C:> gram-ga.pl --aschod=cp850 --dath=none gaeilge.txt
Addendum (3 April 2012): I'm grateful to Chris Snedigar for pointing out this trick for enabling the ANSI color codes!
Text Editor Support
Download
Interfaces are available for the three most popular editors in the open source community: Vim, Emacs, and OpenOffice. These interfaces are distributed with the Perl module in the share/ directory, but if you prefer you can download them here:
- gramadoir.el. Emacs Lisp Interface (screenshot).
- gramadoir.vim. Plug-in for Vim (screenshot).
- gramadoir.sxw. OpenOffice macro (screenshot).
Installation and usage instructions follow.
Emacs
Martin Gregory has kindly contributed an Emacs interface to An Gramadóir which is very easy to use. Here are his instructions:
“The Emacs interface to An Gramadóir allows you to run An Gramadóir from within an Emacs session and navigate to the locations in the input files where An Gramadóir found problems. The interface is similar to that of the compile or grep commands in Emacs.
INSTALLING THE INTERFACE:
Put gramadoir.el in your emacs site lisp directory, often something like:
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/gramadoirIf you don't have one, put it it ~/lisp or some other directory of your choice and put the following line in your ~/.emacs file
(load-file "/where/you/put/gramadoir.el")If you are an experienced Emacs user, you'll probably want to auto load the file.
USING THE INTERFACE:
The interface allows you to specify files in two different ways:
- using the command gramadoir-check-files which prompts for a space separated list of files, without file completion;
- from a dired window using the gramadoir-dired command. This behaves like other dired commands: either all selected files are processed or, if no file is selected, the file listed on the current line is processed.
After running one of the above commands, the output of An Gramadóir is written to a new buffer which is displayed in a separate window. Using the gramadoir-next-message command positions the cursor at the location of the first error in the first file. Subsequent use of this command takes you to the locations of subsequent errors. If you reposition the cursor in the output buffer, the command takes you to the location of the next error after that position.
CUSTOMISATION:
For convenience, you can bind the three commands to keys. These need to be global definitions, for example:
(global-set-key "\C-cg" 'gramadoir-check-files) (global-set-key "\C-cd" 'gramadoir-dired) (global-set-key [f3] 'gramadoir-next-message)
If you installed An Gramadóir anywhere other than in /usr/bin
you need to tell the interface where to look for it by putting a line
similar to the following:
(setq gramadoir-program-path "/usr/bin/gram-xx.pl")in your ~/.emacs, substituting the appropriate path for /usr/bin and language code for xx.
Finally, the interface highlights the error text both in the output
buffer and in the buffer of the original file. If you prefer not to
highlight the text in the original file, add this:
(setq gramadoir-highlight-text nil)to your ~/.emacs.”
Vim
I've written a script which emulates the behavior of Martin's Emacs interface within Vim. You can download it from the link at the top of this page, or you can get it directly from Vim online. Instructions:
- put gramadoir.vim in ~/.vim/plugin. For languages other than Irish, you'll need to change the gram-ga.pl around line 30 to the appropriate script name.
- put the following lines in your ~/.vimrc file
map <F3> <Plug>Gr map <F4> <Plug>Neamh map <F5> <Plug>Amach
or choose different hot keys if you want. - open the text file to be checked in Vim.
- to check its grammar, press F3; a second buffer, containing the messages from An Gramadóir, will open at the bottom of the screen. The cursor will move to the first error (which is also highlighted in red if you are using a suitable color terminal).
- Each successive use of F3 moves to the next error (in both windows, in parallel).
- If the current error is a single word (unknown, misspelled, rare,
non-standard, etc.), you can insert it into your
.neamhshuim(ignore) file by pressing F4. - Pressing F5 exits the grammar checker and resumes normal editing.
- Notes: you are free to make edits, corrections, etc. to the main buffer while running the grammar checker. The last error displayed is tracked according to the cursor position in the error buffer, so whenever you press F3 it will correctly take you to the next error. This also means that you can jump to any particular error you'd like: go into the error buffer (with Ctrl-w-w), move the cursor to just before the desired error, press F3.
OpenOffice
The file gramadoir.sxw is an OpenOffice document that contains an embedded macro allowing An Gramadóir to be called directly from an OpenOffice session. Update: this macro is no longer working with the latest versions of OpenOffice; please contact me if you'd be interest trying to get it back up and running, or doing a port to LibreOffice.
