[OS X TeX] Spell Check in TeXShop?

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 15.03.2006 um 12:41 schrieb Bruno Voisin:

> Did you install cocoAspell <http://cocoaspell.leuski.net/>?

Yes, of course, in /usr/local/lib/aspell-0.60 (170 files)! Including  
French and German dictionaries ...

>
> If you did, it should have created, without any further action on  
> your part, a Spelling pref panel in System Preferences. There, you  
> have a Dictionaries tab allowing you to select aspell dictionaries  
> for appearance in the Spelling panel of GUI OS X applications, and  
> to select filters for each dictionary (including a TeX/LaTeX  
> filter). You also have a Filters tab, allowing you to add/remove/ 
> modify commands for inclusion in the filters.

I even Germanised the PrefPane and sent it to Anton Leuski. Aspell  
works in Emacs a little bit (does not understand UTF-8 or ISO 8859  
encodings, too, I think, so it's useless here, too), but not from Mac  
OS X, i.e. its Spelling Service (which is activated/invoked when I  
send an eMail for example) nor from pressing Cmd-:. Checking one of  
the aspell dictionaries in earlier versions of Tiger only brought  
chaotic strings, now it completely disables the service. A reboot  
cures this finally (maybe there are other means, too, but is it worth  
to investigate them?).

Aspell seems to have another disadvantage: the process continues to  
stay on! Ispell silently goes away when it has done its duty. My  
personal dictionary is closed and save, nothing can happen to it  
during a crash.

Then I have from this aspell service these personal dictionaries:

-rw-r--r--   1 pete  pete   24 15 Nov 16:44 /Users/pete/.aspell.de.prepl
-rw-r--r--   1 pete  pete   31 15 Nov 16:44 /Users/pete/.aspell.de.pws
-rw-r--r--   1 pete  pete   39 27 Mai  2005 /Users/ 
pete/.aspell.english.prepl
-rw-r--r--   1 pete  pete  257 27 Mai  2005 /Users/ 
pete/.aspell.english.pws

The one I arranged in Emacs looks to be unused -- well, it most  
probably is, or would I teach aspell words that are not from this  
real world but aspell's mis-imagination?

And there are default configuration options like these (from 'spell  
config'):

	# run-together-limit (integer)
	#   maximum number that can be strung together
	# default: 2
	
	# run-together-min (integer)
	#   minimal length of interior words
	# default: 3

A compound word has at least three shorter words but is limited in  
length to only two such?! And a final newline is missing in the  
output ...

Looking into ~/Library/Preferences/aspell.Spelling.plist I see  
strange names, for example the "last-dictionary-selected" is  
"de_DE--" -- I am sure that I don't have this one! Anton Leuski is a  
person who does not communicate that much ... free, as in software or  
beer, has too many meanings!

Honestly, I can not recommend the use of aspell. It's better to teach  
the mess of Apple's spell service all the TeX and LaTeX words ...

--
Greetings

   Pete

   It's not the valleys in life I dread so much as the dips.
-- Garfield


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