Description

This is a vim package for an autocorrect feature built on the iabbrev and spellsuggest commands and years worth of spelling mistakes and typos made on qwerty keyboards.

The result is useful for writing general prose or code, but is especially good for a stream-of-consciousness or for transcription. It's fast and accurate enough to consider using unconditionally every time vim is started.

The goal is to create the largest list of typos and spelling mistakes with opinionated corrections that exists, without compromising accuracy and without ever doing anything unexpected.

It's not possible to fix everything all the time, but if used correctly, many typos will be seen once and never again.

The full list of over 51,000 typos is in abbrev. The words in the included list were generated from various sources, such as personal notes, fiction, non-fiction, and while writing code. It is made up of only lines like these:

teh the

These are then added to vim as iabbrev definitions:

iabbrev teh the

It's not a grammar checker. There's no way to fix transposition typos on short words like from/form, but it works well for longer words or those that are difficult to spell.

Demos

Installation

This repo is not a plugin; it is a package of two vim plugins and should be installed to ~/.vim/pack/vim-autocorrect. The vim-abbrev-add plugin has functions to interactively add abbreviations to the list, while the list is stored and loaded in vim-abbrev.

Configuration

By default, the typos and their corrections are added to abbrev, but this can be overridden by setting the variable g:abbrev_file.

let g:abbrev_file = expand('~/.vim/pack/vim-autocorrect/opt/vim-abbrev/plugin/abbrev')

Usage

Loading the list

To source the list of abbreviations (i.e., enable autocorrect) use the packadd command on the package:

packadd vim-abbrev

This will take several seconds to load, but shouldn't inconvenience the user. The problem is that it takes time to source this list and with every abbreviation added it takes vim longer to insert one, which blocks user input. Abbreviations are loading asynchronously in batches of decreasing size at a delay with timer_start. About 6-10 seconds after loading the package, it should have sourced everything.

Adding to the list

To quickly add abbreviations to the file after making typos, map the AutoCorrect command like this:

nnoremap <silent> <leader>d <esc>vip:call AutoCorrect()<CR>

The vip here will select the current paragraph and pull out typos and use the built-in spellsuggest feature to guess at a correction. After pressing enter or <c-j> to confirm the new abbreviations, they will be written to the file and added with iabbrev.

Editing the list

Removal of words must be done manually. Open abbrev and make any necessary changes.

Disabling autocorrect

iabclear
let g:loaded_AutoCorrect = 0

Workflow while writing

If you need to write a word that would otherwise be autocorrected, such as teh, type <C-C> or <C-V> after writing the word. <C-C> goes back to normal mode without performing the correction, while <C-V> stays in insert mode.

Some tips for writing prose with this:

• Add words to the good word list with zg to avoid accidentally correcting them.
• Don't assume that spellsuggest is going to suggest the correct word.
• If a word is likely to have been typed badly, type it again at least once more. Unless editing is done soon after, the correct word may not be obvious.
• If a word starts off badly, either delete it or add a space and type it again. Typos with unrelated prefixes are not as useful and are easily avoided.
• Review recently added typos and check for errors. Hastily adding corrections isn't reliable.

About the list

I've been building this list since 2012. This list exists for my own benefit, so I'm not interested in contributions. Reasonable suggestions will be considered. I write in the en-US locale with a standard qwerty layout. It was created on the following keyboards:

• Apple US English keyboard MB110LL/B
• HHKB Pro JP
• HHKB Professional 2
• MacBook air (2012)
• MacBook pro (2020)
• Topre Realforce 91UDK-G NG02B0

Deleting the words in abbrev and starting from scratch with any set of rules is an option, but the included list was created by making every effort to avoid unintentional corrections. Typos will be pruned from this list regularly. This list contains obvious errors (i.e., correcting a word to a misspelling, or going against the listed rules).

Only one correction can exist for any given typo, so sometimes a decision must be made to prioritize different types of typing mistakes. There are several apparent categories of typos in this list. The main ones are:

• Extraneous or missing characters due to sloppy typing (Henfdrix/Hendrix and (accont/account). This includes extreme laziness (Cahrtaxccteristics/Characteristics).
• Omission of diacritical marks (correct Patisambhida/Paṭisambhidā and Cliche/Cliché but not resume/résumé).
• Repeated characters due to a high network latency or high key repeat rate (Whaaaat/What).
• Spelling mistakes, including a refusal to learn to correctly spell a word or guesses (compatability/compatibility) (anurism/aneurysm).
• Timing errors with the shift keys (INform/Inform).
• Timing errors with the spacebar (atht/at and costsa/costs).
• Transposition of characters due to timing errors between hands or fingers (thta/that).
• Wrong key pressed (Hpw/How).

Numbers are almost always considered to be extraneous characters by this list, especially when within a word (However3/However and z3est/zest).

Timing errors are common when shift is used for capitalization (ONly/Only). Transposition of characters is usually due to individual fingers pressing keys at the wrong time while trying to coordinate both hands as quickly as possible.

Timing errors with the spacebar are also common. The typo yto could be the word toy, but it's extremely unlikely. It was actually a stray letter from a previous word prefixed to the word to. To typo the word toy as yto requires pressing the keys in a reversed order with one hand and is not simply a timing error between hands. While possible, that type of error almost never happens in practice.

Rules for the list

General

• Avoid adding short typos or words, such as those under four characters long.
• Avoid making decisions about mixed-case acronyms.
• Don't add any symbols to the correction. DBus should not correct to D-Bus.
• Don't add contractions or word fragments. hadn shouldn't correct to hand and no entry should exist for shouldn or couldn. No corrections like couldnt/couldn't or dont/don't should be added. It's not likely to be handled correctly by the script that adds abbreviations, either.
• Don't add words that are unlikely to broadly usable, such as camel case variable names. Correcting EventEMitter, to EventEmitter is fine.
• Don't consider foreign words as typos, if known.
• Don't correct common abbreviations—such as acct for account—even if it happened to be a typo for act.
• Prioritize compatibility with writing prose over code, but attempt to make it work with both if possible.
• Remove any autocorrection that results in a word that was unintended.
• Remove any typos that end up being programs, libraries, variables, names, nouns, brands, etc., but only when discovered. For example, the program named mosquitto should not be corrected to mosquito and msoquitto should be corrected to mosquitto, not mosquito.

Spelling mistakes

• Add diacritical marks to letters only if the correct word is unambiguous. Correcting Senor to Señor is fine right up until Senor is written as a typo for Sensor or Senior.
• Avoid changing capitalization of words, as it could be part of a string literal or variable name. Paypal should not be changed into PayPal, but LaTex correcting to LaTeX is fine. The word I should not corrected when i is typed. Mistakes with shift key timing are only considered for the first two characters.
• Don't attempt to localize/localise words.
• Don't enforce a preferred spelling, even for archaic words. Eery should not be corrected to Eerie.

Typing mistakes

• Don't correct short words with a missing letter.
• Don't use this for expanding abbreviated words. At most, this should be limited to a character or two omitted from the end of a long word, or a short word if the correct word is unambiguous. Correcting abou to about is fine.
• Don't change the tense of words. Be explicit about it if possible.
• Generally, don't pluralize words that weren't already pluralized. While keyboaresd is obviously a transposition typo for keyboards, it's corrected to keyboard instead. Type an explicit s at the end of a badly typed word to ensure the correction will also have an s at the end. In practice, this looks like Effecsts/Effects. This rule only applies to pluralization, so suppooes would be corrected to suppose. COntorsl should still be corrected to Controls, as this is due to mistimed hands, not fingers on the same hand.
• No synthetic typos.
• Remove any leading characters from the previous word due to a mistimed spacebar press, unless they are valid words or used as variable names. The typo atht made by typing at that with a mistimed spacebar should not be corrected into at or that.