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1992-08-01
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=================
amSpell
=================
A spell checker for ASCII and (La)TeX files
===========================================
Concepts
--------
amSpell is basically a spell checker for plain ASCII files, with some
special features for dealing with TeX files. The program is written in
Turbo Pascal and runs on any MS-DOS computer.
The basic idea behind this program is to make spell checking easier by
* providing the context of the possibly misspelled word;
* offering alternatives;
* offering facilities for editing the word;
* automatically replacing wrong words by the indicated words;
* learning new words.
amSpell and (La)TeX
-------------------
amSpell does not require TeX commands to be removed. In fact, it will even
interpret the standard accenting commands like \", \`, \' and will
automatically use them while replacing wrongly spelled words. When checking
a TeX file amSpell will ignore all text between $'s and $$'s. Furthermore,
amSpell will ignore the parameter of the LaTeX commands \ref, \pageref,
\cite, \nocite, label, and all text between \begin{equation},
\begin{eqnarray}, \[ and their counterparts such as \]. All words starting
with a backslash are ignored.
Naturally amSpell will conform to the capitalization in each word.
amSpell is DesqView aware. If DesqView is active, then for simple screen
writes, it uses the BIOS and for intensive screen writes, it uses the
Virtual Screen Buffer of DV.
Dictionaries
------------
It is convenient to make amSpell use three types of input files:
* A file containing all jargon and correct words not included in the
dictionary files;
* The dictionary files: usually about 26 files, each containing all words
with the same initial, e.g., US.00A, US.00B etc.;
* Plus of course the file that needs to be checked.
Files of the first and third type should be kept sorted alphabetically,
i.e., according to the ASCII table. This means that, e.g., french words
starting with
should not be appended to FR.00E, but should be separated
in a file called FR.00
These files should be plain text files containing just one word per line.
A compression program is provided (SPCOMP.EXE) as well as a decompression
program (SPDECOMP.EXE). Compression speeds up the reading of a file and
saves disk space.
The dictionary files are split into about 26 sections, according to the
initial of a word. There are two reasons for this approach:
1. Separate files are relatively easy to edit.
2. This sectioning enables amSpell to find alternatives for words that are
not in the dictionaries. amSpell will look for words with the same
initial that somehow `look' like it, in order to correct common typing
errors. E.g., if you typed `egnlisch' amSpell will suggest `english' as
correction, but it will not find the correct spelling of `Ugoslavia'.
Parameters
----------
If you start amSpell without any parameters it will show the screen below:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
amSpell 2.03 - Ascii/TeX SpellingChecker - Copyright (c) A. Merckens 92-08-01
All words in the input file will be checked using one or more dictionaries.
SPELL -? for more help. ^Break to ABORT.
Input file Inputfil
Output file wrong.spl
Batch of Dictionaries (Y/N) N
Dictionary NONE
Auxiliary dictionary NONE
Occurrences (Y/N) N Capitalization (Y/N) N
Multiple occurrences (Y/N) N TeX text (Y/N) N
Linenumbers (Y/N) N Unsorted dictionaries (Y/N) N
Suggestions (Y/N) N Edit misspelled words (Y/N) N
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
You can interactively enter your file names and parameters.
If you want to know more about the parameters you may enter AMSPELL -? in
which case amSpell will show the screen below:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
amSpell 2.03 - Ascii/TeX SpellingChecker - Copyright (c) A. Merckens 92-08-01
Call: AMSPELL <options> <inputfile> <outputfile> <dict1> <dict2> <@optionfile>
Options are:
/b - up to 100 dictionaries are named in a "Batch" file
/c - write words with Capitalization based on first occurrence
/d - Directvideo off - use BIOS to write to screen
/e - Edit the misspelled words; this option puts /m on, /l and /o off
Words can be 'learned', i.e. appended to the file LEARNSPL.SPL
When editing, F1 gives help on the function of special keys
/h - this Help
/i - Ignore missing directories
/k - sKip spellingscheck - all words are misspelled
/l - write Linenumbers along with the words
/m - remember Multiple occurrences with different capitalization
/n - Not so many screen updates (somewhat faster)
/o - write number of Occurrences of the words
/q - be Quiet: do not ask for confirmation of the command-line
/s[i]- search for similar words: give up to i*5 Suggestions, i=1..9
/t - TeX text: do not check formulae, labels, references, cites
/u - the dictionaries are Unsorted
/v - Verify off: delete existing output file
/z - Zero screen writes
/_ - ignore words containing an _
/0 - ignore words containing digits 0-9
/1 - <inputfile> is not a file but a word to be checked
/- - the symbol - is NOT a word separator
/' - the symbol ' IS a word separator
The options may be specified in the so called optionfile
The dictionary files are assumed to have one "word" per line,
or have the special SPL format.
The special name "NONE" means: no dictionary
If /b is specified, then <dict1> is a "batch" file that contains
all filenames of the dictionaries to be used.
Copyright (C) 1992 A. Merckens - Internet: ambase@rugr86.rug.nl
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here is a more detailed description of all parameters:
/b up to 100 dictionaries are named in a "batch" file.
A batch file will typically look like this:
correct.us
c:\tex\spell\us.00a
c:\tex\spell\us.00b
...
c:\tex\spell\us.00z
The first line specifies the name of the file that contains correctly
spelled words that are not in the dictionaries (usually jargon,
author names etc.). The next 26 or so specify the dictionaries from a
through z.
You may use environment parameters in this file. Example:
correct.%LANG%
%DRIVE%%SPELLDIR\us.00a
%SPELLDIR\us.00b
...
%SPELLDIR%\us.00z
Now you can dynamically set %LANG%, %DRIVE% and %SPELLDIR% before you
start amSpell.
/c write words with Capitalization based on first occurrence.
/d Directvideo off -- use BIOS to write to screen. Use this switch if
your screen gets messy or shows `snow' running amSpell. This might be