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List:       pine-info
Subject:    Re: Pine spelling checker user word list?  HOW TO DO IT !  (long)
From:       mramey () u ! washington ! edu (Mike Ramey)
Date:       1994-05-31 16:40:23
[Download RAW message or body]

>Thomas R Rocek (rocek@strauss.udel.edu) wrote:
>: I am using Unix pine, and our system has a spelling checker built in.  I like
>: using it, but I haven't been able to figure out any way to store words
>: (like my name or e-mail address) that appear in every message...so each
>: time I use the checker, I have to tell it to ignore each of these words.
>: Is there a way of creating a user word list which the pine spelling checker
>: will recognize, so that it doesn't flag those words as misspelled?  Thanks
>: a lot for any advice...Tom Rocek


I hope the following information is correct and helpful.  
It is a summary of email messages over several months.
--Mike Ramey


----------------------
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 1994 14:15:22 -0800 (PST)
From: Mike Ramey <mramey@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Pine & ispell - alternate spell-checker.

I hope the following is an accurate summary of the ways you can 
use ispell with pine.  Please correct as necessary.
I think we should have a pine FAQ, and this should go in it.
-mr

From: Alan Robert Clark <clark@YingTongDiddleIPo.ee.wits.ac.za>
> > Surely a FAQ..... How do I get pine to speak to ispell ??

From: David L Miller <dlm@cac.washington.edu>
> The simple way to do this is to do this is to set your alternate-editor 
> to ispell, then '^_' in the composer magically becomes ispell.

From: Mike Ramey <mramey@u.washington.edu>
 - Set 'editor=/usr/local/bin/ispell' in your '.pinerc' file.
 - See 'man ispell' for more information on the ispell program.

Now, when you press ^_ (^-) in pine, you will execute the 'ispell'
program in its native mode.  Press "?" for help.  Press "I" to 
insert unknown words into the personal dictionary.  You can still
press ^T to use the standard pine spell-checking program (which 
will -not- use your personal dictionary).

From: David L Miller <dlm@cac.washington.edu>
Pine already checks the SPELL environment variable.  I notice that someone
posted a shell script that allows ispell to be used like spell, ...
 
From: Mike Grupenhoff <kashmir@snare.dorm.umd.edu>
I'm not sure this is the correct way, but I just created the following 
script and named it "spell."
     #!/bin/sh
     ispell -l | sort | uniq
It pretty much mimics spell's behavior.  Of course, there's probably a 
better way, but this has worked for me.

From: Mike Ramey <mramey@u.washington.edu>
To make ^T in pine use 'ispell' and your '$HOME/.ispell_words' dictionary:
 - make the above script file 'spell' in your home directory
 - make it executable: 'chmod u+x spell'
 - set the environment variable SPELL: 'setenv SPELL $HOME/spell'
   (you may include this command in your .cshrc or .login file)

Now, when you press ^T in pine, you will execute the 'ispell' program, 
and it will recognize words stored in the private dictionary.  The 
screen display will look like pine is using the standard spell-checking 
program.  Unfortunately, this method does not allow the user to "I"nsert
words into the private dictionary.  However, this might be useful with a
central script file (setenv SPELL ...)  and a central private dictionary
(ispell -p ...)  to provide a common private dictionary for an entire 
workgroup.  The manager could add items to the private dictionary; 
ordinary pine users would use the private dictionary (^T), but they 
could not change it.  


------------------------
From: Norman Friedman <norm@helix.nih.gov>
Please explain the "ispell" to us computer illiterates who use Pine
because it is so simple.  Thanks, Norm

From: Henry Kuo <hkuo@ocf.Berkeley.EDU>
Where can I get ispell?

From: Mike Brudenell <pmb1@tower.york.ac.uk>
...As long as people who don't use ispell aren't overlooked!
There is something positive to be said for using a "standard utility" 
that is present on virtually every UNIX system under the sun as against 
some optional software that MAY have been installed.  Mike Brudenell


----------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 1994 06:01:17 -0800 (PST)
From: Mike Ramey <mramey@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Use ispell as standard speller, with modified commands?

Well, maybe I'm the computer illiterate; I didn't realize that 'ispell' is
not available on every unix system.  It certainly would be helpful if
users could add words to the spell-check dictionary.  I get tired of being
told that weekday abbreviations are spelled wrong, and my last name, and
'diskette',
'telnet',            [ See P.S. below; spell error is reported here. ]
'email'(!), etc. 
   I can see the advantage of using a standard unix utility (spell).  Is
'ispell' hard to obtain & install?  Is it worth building 'ispell' hooks
into pine? 
   In the meantime ... If ispell is installed on your system, andif you
want to use it (so you can add words to the spelling dictionary), follow
the detailed instructions in my earlier summary message describing how to: 
(1) use ispell in native mode (via the ^_ key), and (2) use ispell in pine
mode (via the ^T key and an executable script file).  If you missed that
message, let me know and I will send or repost it.  If you have any 
corrections to that message, please let me know.  Thanks to all who
explained the details of ispell.  I like it!  

P.S.:  In spell-checking this message (using 'spell' via ^T key), 
I discovered the following anomaly:
 - the following 1 line produces 3 spelling errors:
and 'diskette', 'telnet', 'email'(!), etc. 
 - the following 3 lines produce -no- spelling errors:
'diskette', 
'telnet', 
'email'(!), etc. 
BUT WAIT ... If you spell check this message just as it is before you, 
the three errors (email, diskette, telnet) will be reported in the list
at the top of the message, BUT ... if you remove this P.S. and run the
spell-check again, NO ERRORS will be reported!  SO ... the errors are
being -found- in the sentence:
... and 'diskette', 'telnet', 'email'(!), etc. 
but the errors are being -reported- at the first occurrence of the words
in the message (the list at the top).  Very strange!  What's up?  
   When I checked the spelling using ispell native mode (via the ^_ key),
the three words (email, diskette, telnet) were -always- reported; but once
I add them to my private dictionary, I'll never see them again.  AND ...
ispell even told me that 'occurrance' should be spelled 'occurrence' and
allows me to make the replacement by pressing just one key!  
I like ispell.  -mr


--------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 1994 07:41:25 -0800 (PST)
From: Mike Ramey <mramey@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Use ispell with -pico- ?

On Mon, 24 Jan 1994, Gregory J. Atchity wrote:
>   I just started using Pine last week, and am very interested in seeing your
> instructions. I've never used Emacs, and have no interest in using Emacs,
> but you have been able to coerce Ispell to work with the Pico editor I'd
> LOVE to use it.

Everything I've seen so far relates to using ispell with pine, not pico.
I just tried the ^_ key in pico, and it is an 'unknown command'.
Pine-folks:  Is ^_ (alternate composer) supported in -pico-?
             Is there a .picorc file?  Should there be?
             How can we get ispell (native mode!) to work in -pico-?


----------------
Date: Fri, 8 Apr 1994 18:01:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mike Ramey <mramey@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Using 'ispell' in pine & pico via ^T !!!

There -is- a good reason to implement the 'ispell' program via ^T (CTRL-T)
(using the script file) in addition to implementing it via ^_ (CTRL-_): 
  - use ^_ in -pine- (it won't work in pico) for full-featured ispell;
  - use ^T in -pico- to use the ispell program and your .ispell_words
    dictionary.  NOTE -- It will look just like the old ^T spell-checker
    but it will not flag errors which have been added to your private
    .ispell_words dictionary.  It will -NOT- allow you to "I"nsert words
    into your privat dictionary, and it will -NOT- offer suggestions for
    correct spellings.  But it is an improvement for pico spell-checking!
You can use ^T-ispell in pine also, but why bother when ^_ works better.

=== end -mr ===

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