hugh@BRL.ARPA (USAFAS) (05/17/85)
Hi, I feel kind of dumb, but I can't make any sense of the man regarding spellin & spellout. Can you help me? 1. Do they have any benefit for a non-superuser? 2. Can they be used to maintain a private dictionary? 3. Can I use spell with a private dictionary? I have written my own private spelling checker and corrector but it seems to me that spellin and spellout should help in this. Right now, I'm relying on "comm" and "grep." Thanks, hugh@brl
gwyn@Brl.ARPA (VLD/VMB) (05/17/85)
Whether or not you can use spell with your own private word list depends on which version of spell you use. "spellin" & "spellout" are of no use to anyone except the system spelling list maintainer. To use a local word list with the System V "spell", just name the list with a + prefix, as in: $ spell +mylist document
alexis@reed.UUCP (Alexis Dimitriadis) (05/21/85)
>> ... I can't make any sense of the man regarding spellin & spellout. >> Can you help me? >> >>1. Do they have any benefit for a non-superuser? >>2. Can they be used to maintain a private dictionary? >>3. Can I use spell with a private dictionary? >> >> I have written my own private spelling checker and corrector >>but it seems to me that spellin and spellout should help in this. >>Right now, I'm relying on "comm" and "grep." > "spellin" & "spellout" > are of no use to anyone except the system spelling list maintainer. > To use a local word list with the System V "spell", just name the > list with a + prefix, as in: > $ spell +mylist document I don't know what the +mylist does in System V, but the FAST way to keep one's own private word list is to make it into a hash list. (Assuming there is no shortage of file space on the system, of course. The hash list is 50,000 characters long!!). The manual is not terribly clear, but spellin makes hashlists, and spellout looks up words in a hashlist. Then, if you have a list of words in the file "mywords", you create a hashlist that includes your words plus the system dictionary with spellin /usr/dict/hlista < mywords > myhlist (/usr/lib/hlista is the system hashlist). Then you can make the system spell use your hash list (INSTEAD of the system list), by calling it as in spell -d myhlist textfile At any rate, the above are true and tested on a VAX runing ULTRIX, a 4.2 BSD clone. If your system does not know -d, you may need to modify /usr/bin/spell. (Which is a shell script, and calls /usr/lib/spell). If /usr/lib/spell has the hash list hardcoded in it, then you are on your own. Alexis Dimitriadis -- _______________________________________________ As soon as I get a full time job, the opinions expressed above will attach themselves to my employer, who will never be rid of them again. alexis @ reed ...teneron! \ ...seismo!ihnp4! - tektronix! - reed.UUCP ...decvax! /