aspell: Introduction

1 
1 1 Introduction
1 **************
1 
1 GNU Aspell is a spell checker designed to eventually replace Ispell.  It
1 can either be used as a library or as an independent spell checker.  Its
1 main feature is that it does a much better job of suggesting possible
1 replacements for a misspelled word than just about any other spell
1 checker out there for the English language.  Unlike Ispell, Aspell can
1 also easily check documents in UTF-8 without having to use a special
1 dictionary.  Aspell will also do its best to respect the current locale
1 setting.  Other advantages over Ispell include support for using
1 multiple dictionaries at once and intelligently handling personal
1 dictionaries when more than one Aspell process is open at once.
1 
1    The latest version of Aspell can always be found at
1 `http://aspell.net'
1 
1 1.1 Comparison to other spell checker engines
1 =============================================
1 
1                          Aspell   Ispell   Netscape   Microsoft
1                                            4.0        Word 97
1 Open Source              x        x                   
1 Suggestion               88-98    54       55-70?     71
1 Intelligence                                          
1 Personal part            x        x        x          
1 of Suggestions                                        
1 Alternate Dictionaries   x        x        ?          ?
1 International Support    x        x        ?          ?
1 
1    The Suggestion Intelligence is based on a small test kernel of
1 misspelled/correct word pairs.  Go to `http://aspell.net/test' for more
1 info and how you can help contribute to the test kernel.  The current
1 scores for Aspell are 88 in _fast_ mode, 93 in _normal_ mode, and 98 in
1 _bad spellers_ mode: for more information about the various suggestion
1 modes ⇒Notes on the Different Suggestion Modes.
1 
1    If you have any other information you would like to add to this chart
1 please contact me at <kevina@gnu.org>.
1 
1 1.1.1 Comparison to Ispell
1 --------------------------
1 
1 1.1.1.1 Features that only Aspell has
1 .....................................
1 
1    * Is an actual library that other programs can link to instead of
1      having to use it through a pipe.
1 
1    * Does a much better job of suggesting possible replacements for a
1      misspelled word than Ispell does or for that matter many other
1      spell checkers I have seen.  If you know a spell checker that does
1      a better job please let me know.
1 
1    * Can learn from user's misspellings.
1 
1    * Can easily check documents in UTF-8 without having to use a special
1      dictionary.
1 
1    * Has support for using multiple dictionaries at once.
1 
1    * Is multiprocess intelligent.  When a personal dictionary (or
1      replacement list) is saved, it will now first update the list
1      against the dictionary on disk in case another process modified it.
1 
1    * Can share the memory used in the main word list between processes.
1 
1    * A better, more complete word list for the English language.  Word
1      lists are provided for American, British, and Canadian spelling.
1      Special care has been taken to only include one spelling for each
1      word in any particular word list.  The word list included in
1      Ispell by contrast only included support for American and British
1      and also tends to included multiple spellings for a word which can
1      mask some spelling errors.
1 
1 1.1.1.2 Things that, currently, only Ispell has
1 ...............................................
1 
1    * Lower memory footprint
1 
1    * Ability to deal with arbitrary multi-character letters such as old
1      ASCII encodings of accented letters.
1 
1    * Perhaps better support for spell checking (La)TeX files.
1 
1 
11    For a detailed description of how Aspell differs from Ispell, ⇒
 Differences From Ispell.
1