[aspell-devel] Aspell and advanced dictionaries

[Lars Aronsson]

Ispell has a dictionary with "flags" after each word that indicate
standard sets of affixes.  For example, the /S suffix flag for
English has rules for how to add a plural -s to words, including
hobby-hobbies and fix-fixes.  This not only shortens the dictionary,
but also allows ispell to explain that hobbies is "correct because of
hobby".  If hobby and hobbies are listed as two separate words in the
dictionary, this ability is lost.

To this ability, I would like to add a short explanation to each word
in the dictionary.  For example:

   fix/S        # a solution to a problem
   hobbit/S     # fictional human species in works by JRR Tolkien
   hobby/S      # art or craft done in one's spare time

Then the spell checker could explain that "hobbies" is "correct
because of hobby - art or craft done in one's spare time".  This could
help in some situations where I spelled a word wrong resulting in
another correct word, but not the one I intended.  Perhaps I wanted to
type "hobbits" and just happened to write "hobbies" instead.

These explanations could be used when aspell suggests alternative
words too, I guess.  Writing explanations requires the use of flags,
so to avoid writing the same explanation twice.


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (address@hidden)
  Aronsson Datateknik
  Teknikringen 1e, SE-583 30 Linuxköping, Sweden
  tel +46-70-7891609
  http://aronsson.se/ http://elektrosmog.nu/ http://susning.nu/