markdownlint VS vale

markdownlint is a node.js markdown linter that is easy to install and easy to customize. It is based on an earlier Ruby tool, also called markdownlint. Both are great, but the Node.js tool is easy to install and easy to customize.

An example of where this can be convenient is when you want to use an external program or project that uses a language that isn't supported by your project. For example, the build process for this blog's content uses Node.js, but consider the case where I wanted to use a Markdown linter defined in Ruby, such as Markdownlint. One option is to add a Ruby installation directly to the definition of the build environment, but this has a few disadvantages:

Vale is an OSS tool that you can use as a "prose linter" with many of these rules. You can also write your own rules. Together with a spellchecker its a good replacement for proprietary tools like grammarly.

- https://github.com/errata-ai/vale

> Write in US English with US grammar. (Tested in British.yml.)

heh, that was funny but it turns out the file is a list of British words checked using Vale, which I just learned existed: https://github.com/errata-ai/vale#readme (MIT)

Also, another TIL is that the "e" version of gray is British https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/doc/.vale... I had previously erroneously assumed they were just one of those quirks of English (which, I guess is still true but it is less random than I thought)

Off the top of my head, Vale and Acrolinx.

I have recently thought of feeding the suggestions from Vale (https://vale.sh/) into an LLM along with your writing. Currently I just simply ask an LLM to take what I wrote and put it into a more "active voice". I then manually edit my writing to make it more "active" if I choose -- I do not just publish LLM generated content unaltered.

Note: I did not ask an LLM for this comment.

vale to spell check and enforce writing style on my articles