ProseLint is great. As I’m writing a book about style and linting, it’s natural to try to lint the book that lints your programming. In using this tool, I’ve encountered some amusing “lint fails” that I’d thought I’d share.

ProseLint vs Nil Coalescing: “hyperbolic.misc ‘`??`’ is hyperbolic.” Winner: Swift Style.

ProseLint vs discussion of Forced Unwwrapping: “leonard.exclamation.30ppm More than 30 ppm of exclamations. Keep them under control.” Winner: ProseLint. Any forced unwrapping, even in a discussion about forced unwrapping, is an obvious fail. Save the kittens, drop the !’s.

ProseLint vs Meaningful Variable Names: “typography.symbols.multiplication_symbol Use the multiplication symbol ×, not the letter x” Winner: Swift Style. As Freud said, sometimes an letter  “x”  is just a letter “x”. (Or was that Groucho Marx? I forget.)

ProseLint vs “Use American English Spelling” rule: “consistency.spelling Inconsistent spelling of ‘color’ (vs. ‘colour’)” Winner: Swift Style. When writing for a global audience, prefer “color” to “colour”. (See? I did it again. — B. Spears)

Winner? Forget the points. It’s ProseLint. This summary doesn’t include the great catches made and fixed, like excessive use of “very”, repeated word detection, etc. Great tool, check it out.