GNU Aspell is a Free and Open Source spell checker designed to
eventually replace Ispell.
GNU Aspell is a Free and Open Source spell checker designed to
eventually replace Ispell. It can either be used as a library or as
an independent spell checker. Its main feature is that it does a
much better job of coming up with possible suggestions than just
about any other spell checker out there for the English language,
including Ispell and Microsoft Word. It also has many other
technical enhancements over Ispell such as using shared memory for
dictionaries and intelligently handling personal dictionaries when
more than one Aspell process is open at once.
The ultimate goal of GNU Aspell is to become the standard spell
checker for GNU/Linux and other Free operating systems.
This release of Aspell is the first version of Aspell as an
official GNU Package. It is a combination of the original Aspell
and Pspell which should be as least as stable as the original
Aspell/Pspell combination. The source code has been completely
reorganized in the process of the merge which should make it
significantly easier for others to maintain. Being a single
package, it should also be easier to install and package.
From an end-users stand point GNU Aspell has several small yet
significant enhancements over the original Aspell including an
improved spell checking interface which includes the ability to use
Ispell key bindings when checking documents, support for the Dvorak
keyboard layout, and an enhanced command line interface which
includes support for listing the available dictionaries and
printing out the value of an individual configuration option.
Unfortunately, Kevin Atkinson, the sole maintainer of GNU Aspell
has very little time to maintain and develop future versions of
Aspell. Thus, he is desperately looking for someone to help with
the maintenance and development of Aspell. A lot of tasks need to
be done before Kevin will consider Aspell complete, but without
some outside help GNU Aspell will probably never make it.
More information on GNU Aspell, including how to get it and ways
others can help, can be found at http://aspell.net