Errors in example.spec on https://gauge.org

[brandondrew]

While it's nice to have simple examples to demonstrate a tool like Gauge, it would be preferable if the examples didn't have errors in them.

The first mistake that jumps out immediately is a grammatical error. Either of these choices would be okay, but not the text that is used:

1. Vowels in the English language are "aeiou".
2. Vowels in English are "aeiou".

"English" is a noun by itself, the name of a language. It doesn't an article. But if you want to say "English language" then "English" becomes and adjective, and "language" needs the definite article "the".

The sentences are still somewhat awkward after that correction, but either adding "the" or removing "language" will fix the biggest grammatical problem.

Next is a factual error. Vowels are not defined by spelling but by pronunciation. "Gauge" does not have 3 vowels, but one!

[chadlwilson]

Thanks for the ticket.

I always appreciate a good ol' grammar/spelling nitpick, but just keep in mind that the original and main contributors to Gauge aren't all "English as a first language" so some minor quibbles like this are probably expected.

Annoyingly this would need to be corrected across all plugins and core gauge, so it's a bit of a pain: https://github.com/search?q=org%3Agetgauge+%22vowels+in+English%22&type=code

On the factual error, yeah, but none of us are linguists here - and I doubt more than 0.1% of native speakers are aware that the common usage of the term vowel is "technically" incorrect (and even the we we teach kids in English speaking countries) and elides this difference between the technical linguist view and "common usage". People often distinguish between 'vowels' and 'vowel sounds'. I'd rather be useful than accurate in this case.