Automattic / Automattic/harper

Can we detect "logical false inclusion" errors made misusing "other"?

Open
#3,451 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
enhancement harper-core linting
Dominant language
Rust
Stars
15.4k
Forks
627
Avg merge
1d 15h
Merged PRs (30d)
102

Description

I've been thinking about this kind of error for a while now but I just heard this particularly clear example on YouTube channel Logically Answered:
> Besides **Apple**, all **other Android brands** are losing users… except Google.

This awkward sentence structure unwittingly includes Apple as an Android brand.
This particular example makes it worse/more obvious with the word **besides**, but that also makes it harder to fix automatically.

I'll collect more examples here:
- In terms of swag, we each got a hoodie, two t-shirts, and a hat, a Beast Labs toy, a bag of **meat snacks**, and some **other candy**.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

The issue provides two example sentences but names no files, tests, or entry points. Start by reviewing the examples and locating the existing handling of “other” and exclusion language; done should mean the intended false-inclusion cases are detected without incorrectly flagging valid uses.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.