Automattic / Automattic/harper

False negative: `MassNouns` doesn't flag "a software" that has modifiers/qualifiers

Open
#3,799 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
bug false-negative grammar harper-core linting
Dominant language
Rust
Stars
15.4k
Forks
627
Avg merge
1d 15h
Merged PRs (30d)
106

Description

> bibisco is a novel writing software that helps you plan, organize and write your story without getting lost.

"a software" is very common among nonnative users of English and has been adopted by some in the younger generation of native speakers. In this case I think the writer is a native Italian speaker.

Harper flags it in isolation as "a software" but not in "a novel writing software".

This is an interesting test case too because both "novel" and "writing" can be analysed as either adjectives or nouns though in this context "novel" is a noun and "writing" is a gerund, which is a verb used as a noun.

Correctly, the phrase should be hyphenated as "novel-writing software", but that's a separate job for a different linter and the linter that flags "a software" should be permissive about what it accepts.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Locate the MassNouns implementation and its existing tests, then start by tracing how noun phrases with modifiers are analyzed. Add a regression case for “a novel writing software” and verify that the phrase is flagged while the linter remains permissive about the separate hyphenation concern.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
devtools
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
65/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.