pdp11v/usr/man/u_man/man1/spell.1

.TH SPELL 1
.SH NAME
spell, hashmake, spellin, hashcheck \- find spelling errors
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B spell
[
.B \-v
] [
.B \-b
] [
.B \-x
] [
.B \-l
] [
.BR + local_file
] [ files ]
.PP
.B /usr/lib/spell/hashmake
.PP
.B /usr/lib/spell/spellin
n
.PP
.B /usr/lib/spell/hashcheck
spelling_list
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Spell
collects words from the named
.I files
and looks them up in a spelling list.
Words that neither occur among nor are derivable
(by applying certain inflections,
prefixes, and/or suffixes) from words in the spelling list
are printed on the standard output.
If no
.I files
are named,
words are collected from the standard input.
.PP
.I Spell
ignores most
.IR troff (1),
.IR tbl (1),
and
.IR eqn (1)
constructions.
.PP
Under the
.B \-v
option, all words not literally in the spelling list are printed,
and plausible derivations from the words in the spelling list are indicated.
.PP
Under the
.B \-b
option, British spelling is checked.
Besides preferring
.IR centre ,
.IR colour ,
.IR programme ,
.IR speciality ,
.IR travelled ,
etc.,
this option insists upon
.I -ise
in words like
.IR standardise ,
Fowler and the
.SM OED
to the contrary
notwithstanding.
.PP
Under the
.B \-x
option, every plausible stem is printed with
.B =
for each word.
.PP
By default,
.I spell
(like
.IR deroff (1))
follows chains of included files
.RB ( .so
and
.B .nx
.IR troff (1)
requests),
.I unless
the names of such included files begin with
.BR /usr/lib .
Under the
.B \-l
option,
.I spell
will follow the chains of
.I all
included files.
.PP
Under the
.BI + local_file
option, words found in
.I local_file
are removed from
.IR spell 's
output.
.I Local_file
is the name of a user-provided file that contains a sorted list of words,
one per line.
With this option, the user can
specify a set of words
that are correct spellings (in addition to
.IR spell 's
own spelling list)
for each job.
.PP
The spelling list is based on many sources,
and while more haphazard than an ordinary
dictionary, is also more effective with respect to
proper names and popular technical words.
Coverage of
the specialized vocabularies of biology,
medicine, and chemistry is light.
.PP
Pertinent auxiliary files may be specified by
name arguments, indicated below with their
default settings (see
.SM
.IR FILES ).
Copies of all output
are accumulated in the history file.
The stop list filters out misspellings (e.g., thier=thy\-y+ier)
that would otherwise pass.
.PP
Three routines help maintain and check the hash lists used by
.IR spell :
.TP "\w'\fBhashcheck\fP   'u"
.B hashmake
Reads a list of words from the standard input and
writes the corresponding nine-digit hash code on the standard output.
.TP
.B spellin
Reads
.I n
hash codes from the standard input and writes a compressed spelling list on the
standard output.
.TP
.B hashcheck
Reads a compressed
.I spelling_list
and recreates the nine-digit hash codes for all the words in it;
it writes these codes on the standard output.
.br
.ne 4v
.SH FILES
.PD 0
.TP "\w'H_SPELL=/usr/lib/spell/spellhist   'u"
.SM D_SPELL\*S=/usr/lib/spell/hlist[ab]
hashed spelling lists, American & British
.TP
.SM S_SPELL\*S=/usr/lib/spell/hstop
hashed stop list
.TP
.SM H_SPELL\*S=/usr/lib/spell/spellhist
history file
.TP
/usr/lib/spell/spellprog
program
.PD
.SH SEE ALSO
deroff(1),
eqn(1),
sed(1),
sort(1),
tbl(1),
tee(1),
troff(1).
.SH BUGS
The spelling list's coverage is uneven;
new installations will probably wish to
monitor the output for several months to gather
local additions;
typically, these are kept in a separate local file
that is added to the hashed
.I spelling_list
via
.IR spellin .
.br
The British spelling feature was done by an American.
.\"	@(#)spell.1	5.2 of 5/18/82