Aspell requires egcs 1.1, or gcc 2.95 (or better), as the C++ compiler. Other standard complaint C++ might work however it will take some work as gcc is not fully complaint yet; at very least you will need to install Sgi's STL or STLPort. Unless you are using version 3.11 of SGI's STL you will need to apply a patch to fix a bug in the rope container. (See section 2.5.8 for what to do) That latest version of SGI's STL (http://www.sgi.com/Technology/STL/), version 3.11, fixes the bugs in rope and thus does not need to be fixed. All versions of egcs and any version of gcc before 2.95 will need this patch applied. Gcc 2.95 and latter uses version 3.11 (or better) and thus does not need the patch applied.
The latest version can always be found at Aspell's home page at http://aspell.sourceforge.net.
Support for Aspell can be found on the Aspell mailing list. Instructions for joining the mailing list (and an archive of the mailing list) can be found off the Aspell home page at http://aspell.sourceforge.net.
The easiest thing you can do to help out it is too send me your .aspell.«lang».prepl file located in your home directory every so often. (Email kevinatk@home.com) The file contains data on which word pairs aspell is unable to come up with the proper suggestion. If the file does not exist is simply means that you were only using aspell in a program such as emacs which does not communicate the replacement pairs back to aspell. Sending me the file would help me improve aspell accuracy as right now I don't have very much real data to work with.
Another thing you can do to help out is to try Aspell out on a different language as the Language support system is not very well tested.
After you have read the sections below and have taken care of any special requirements for you system simply type
./configure && makeor
./configure --disable-static && maketo avoid making the static libraries on a system that supports shared libraries. For additional configure options type ./configure --help.
Aspell should then compile with out any additional user intervention. If you run into problems please first check the sections below as that might solve your problem. If it doesn't please send me a note at kevinatk@home.com with the compiler, system you are using and any error messages that were produced.
To install the program simply type
make installAnd thats all there is too it.
If aspell core dumps when spell checking files but seams OK otherwise please see section 2.5.8 as there is a good change that that will fix your problem.
The format and name of the main dictionary has changed which means it will need to be recompiled. The install process will remove the old files for you, so unless you are using dictionaries other than the one provided with aspell or want to have multiple versions of aspell installed you should not have to worry about this.
Aspell now uses namespaces which means egcs 1.0 and gcc 2.8 will no longer cut it. If this becomes a serious problem let me know as it should not be to difficult to get it working again with egcs 1.0 and gcc 2.8.
Due to the new soundslike code the the main dictionary will need to be recompiled. The build process does this automatically so unless you want to have more than one version of aspell around you should not need to worry about this.
The format and file name of the personal dictionaries has also changed. In most cases aspell will automatically detect this and convert it for you by using the following algorithm.
aspell.new dump personal | aspell.old create personal
aspell.new dump repl | aspell.old create replThe new version of aspell will then leave the old files alone as long as *.pws and *.prepl exist.
Also, if the file does not end in .pws or .prepl it will try to read it in using the new format and if that fails it will read in the old format. When the file is saved it will be saved as the new format.
I am hopping I will not have to change the format of the personal dictionaries again. However, the main word list however is very likely to change in format.
The behavior of ``aspell check'' changed so that it will now over right the original file as creating new file was creating too many problems when used with programs like pine and vi.
The name of the personal word lists have changes from .aspell.per and .aspell.rpl to .aspell.«lang».per and .aspell.«lang».rpl respectively. «lang» is is the language name which will generally be ``english''. If you wish to use your old word lists you will need to rename those files.
The format of the personal replacement dictionary has changed. So, you will either need to rename or remove the file .aspell.rpl located in your home directory. If you have information in this file you would like to preserve please send me an email.
Because the location of the main word list moved you should probably do a make uninstall (with the old version of a Aspell) before upgrading to remove the old word lists. A make uninstall will not remove any personal word lists.
In order for aspell to function properly under egcs or gcc 2.8.* you will need to apply the patch file stl_rope-30.diff. (Gcc 2.95 uses version 3.11 of SGI's STL and thus does not need this patch applied.) To apply the patch cd over to the g++ include directory (normally a subdirectory in the normal include directory) and type in the command
patch < «path»/misc/stl_rope-30.diff(where path is the full patch to the location where aspell was unpacked) to patch the necessary file. If it is impossible for you to do this copy the file stl_rope.h to the the directory src/ in the aspell distribution and then type the command:
patch < ../misc/stl_rope-30.diffThen proceed as normal.
If you do not apply this command aspell will crash when used interactively to spell check files. ``aspell -a'' and all other aspell modes will work fine however.
For some reason aspell does not work when linked as a shared library on Solaris. If you notice the build process failing during the creation of the dictionary try this:
./configure --disable-shared && make clean && makeAnd aspell should compile OK. If not let me know.
Aspell can currently function as a drop in replacement for Ispell for programs that use Ispell through a pipe such as Emacs and LyX. It can also be used with programs that use simple call the ispell command and expect the original file to be overwritten with the corrected version. It support the basic features of Ispell however it does not currently have a Nroff mode so there may be situations in which you still wish to use Ispell. Nevertheless, I have been using Aspell for Xemacs and LyX since the middle of September of 1998 with out any problems.
The recommended way to use Aspell as a replacement for ispell is to change the Ispell command from within the program being uses. If the program uses ispell in pipe mode simple change ispell to aspell. If the program calls the ispell command to check the file change ``ispell'' with ``aspell check''.
If that is impossible than the run-with-aspell script can be used for programs using ispell in pipe mode. The format of the script is:
run-with-aspell «command»where «command» is the name of the program with any optional arguments.
The old method of mapping Ispell to Aspell is discouraged because it can create compatibility problems with programs that actually require Ispell such as Ispell's own scripts.
Because Ispell does not have this feature most all programs that use ispell through a pipe will not be able to take advantage of this because they do not communicate back the replacement pairs.
If you want to add support for this feature in your program the best way to do it is to scan the version string for the string ``Aspell'' and if found use the ``$$ra'' command to communicate back to Aspell the replacement pairs. See section 3.1.1 for more information.
The easiest way to use Aspell with Emacs or Xemacs is to add this line:
For some reason version 3.0 of ispell.el (the lisp program that (x)emacs uses) want to reverse the suggestion list. To fix this add this line:
The latest version of ispell.el, version 3.1 (December 1, 1998), has the list reversing problem fixed. You can find it at http://www.kdstevens.com/~stevens/ispell-page.html.
Version 1.0 of LyX provides support for Aspell learning for users mistake feature.
To use aspell with LyX 1.0 either change the spell_command option in the lyxrc file or use the run-with-aspell utility.
(The following section was written by "R. Marc" <rmarc@copacetic.net>.)
To use aspell in vim you simply need to add the following line to your .vimrc file:
A more useful way to use Aspell, IMHO, is in combination with newsbody (http://www.image.dk/~byrial/newsbody/) which is how I use it since vim is my editor for my mailer and my news reader.
map \1 :w!<CR>
map \2 :!newsbody -qs -n % -p aspell check \%f<CR>
To use aspell in pine simply change the option speller to
aspell --mode=email checkTo change the speller option go to the main menu. Type S for setup, C for config, then W for where is. Type in speller as the word to find. The speller option should be highlighted now. Hit enter, type in the above line, and hit enter again. Then type E for exit setup and Y to save the change.
If you have a strong desire to check other peoples comments change speller to
aspell checkinstead which will avoid switching aspell into email mode.