ISPELL(1)                 USER COMMANDS                 ISPELL(1)



NAME
     ispell - Correct spelling for a file

SYNOPSIS
     ispell [ file | -a | -l ]

DESCRIPTION
     _I_s_p_e_l_l is fashioned after the _s_p_e_l_l program from ITS (called
     _i_s_p_e_l_l on Twenex systems.)  The most common usage is "ispell
     filename".  In this case,  _i_s_p_e_l_l  will  display  each  word
     which  does  not  appear in the dictionary, and allow you to
     change it.  If there are "near  misses"  in  the  dictionary
     (words  which  differ  by only a single letter, a missing or
     extra letter, or a pair of transposed  letters),  then  they
     are  also displayed.  If you think the word is correct as it
     stands, you can type either "Space" to accept  it  this  one
     time,  or  "I"  to accept it and put it in your private dic-
     tionary.  If one of the near misses is the  word  you  want,
     type  the  corresponding  number.  Finally, if none of these
     choices is right, you can type "R" and you will be  prompted
     for a replacement word.

     When a misspelled word is found, it is printed at the top of
     the  screen.  Any near misses will be printed on the follow-
     ing lines, and finally, two lines containing  the  word  are
     printed  at  the bottom of the screen.  If your terminal can
     type in reverse video, the word itself is highlighted.

     The -l or "list" option to _i_s_p_e_l_l is used to produce a  list
     of misspelled words from the standard input.

     The -a is intended to be used from other programs through  a
     pipe.   In  this  mode, _i_s_p_e_l_l expects the standard input to
     consist of single words.  Each word is read,  and  a  single
     line  is  written  to  the standard output.  If the word was
     found in the main dictionary, or your  personal  dictionary,
     then  the  line  contains only a '*'.  If the word was found
     through suffix removal, then the  line  contains  a  '+',  a
     space,  and  the  root word.  If the word is not in the dic-
     tionary, but there are near misses, then the  line  contains
     an  '&', a space, and a list of the near misses separated by
     spaces.  Also, each near miss is capitalized the same as the
     input  words.   Finally,  if the word neither appears in the
     dictionary, and there are no near misses, then the line con-
     tains  only  a '#'.  This mode is also suitable for interac-
     tive use when you want to figure out the spelling of a  sin-
     gle  word.  (These characters are the same as the codes that
     the real spell program uses.)

FILES
     /usr/local/lib/ispell.hash
     $HOME/ispell.words



Sun Release 3.2         Last change: MIT                        1






ISPELL(1)                 USER COMMANDS                 ISPELL(1)



BUGS
     It takes about five seconds for _i_s_p_e_l_l to read in  the  hash
     table.

     Perhaps more than ten choices should  be  allowed  for  near
     misses.

     The hash table is stored as a quarter-megabyte array,  so  a
     PDP-11 version does not seem likely.

     _I_s_p_e_l_l should understand more _t_r_o_f_f syntax,  and  deal  more
     intelligently with contractions.

AUTHOR
     Pace Willisson (pace@mit-vax)








































Sun Release 3.2         Last change: MIT                        2