.lm +6
.c;SPELLING CHECKER
.c;SPELL.RNO
.C;30-Nov-87
.c;Jack Harvey
.c;National Data Systems
.c;299 Market Street
.c;Saddle Brook, NJ 07661
.c;201 843-5300
.TITLE Spelling Checker
.B2
.paragraph 0
.AP
.HL1 Summary
This is a pocket guide to SPELL, a spelling checker program. The
intent is to provide a summary of operation and explain the
dictionary extension options. 
.HL1 Use
To invoke SPELL:
.literal

      >SPEL filespec[switch]   [outputfile]

The one switch for the command line is:

      /L=filespec[,filespec[,filespec...]] 

This is to load the dictionary extension list with added words.
See Dictionary Extension below.

.end literal

If the optional output file is given, it will contain a report of
the errors found. There is one line for each word found spelled
wrong.  The line starts with a line number, then the erroneous
word followed by the full text of the line.  If more than one
error occurs in the same line, the line appears multiple times.
This is particularly useful for long texts because error free
lines are not reported. TT: is suitable as an output file if you
just want to see the lines with errors without creating a disk
file.

If you omit the output file specification, the program will list
the entire file on your terminal. Words which are alphabetic but
not found in any of the dictionaries are shown in reversed
blinking video. The total error count is given at the end. 
.page
.hl 1 Dictionary Extensions
A major feature of the SPELL system allows various temporary
additions or extensions to the dictionary. The extension scheme
allows for various classes of additions: 
.list
.le;Permanent Candidates. These are words which are waiting
to be added to the permanent dictionary.  They are in an ordinary
sequential file, [COB.SPEL]NEWWORDS.ADD.  When the approved list is
finally added to the permanent dictionary, this file is empty.
.le;Personal Extensions.  This optional file, MYWORDS.ADD in your 
login directory, is included if present.  
.le;Document Extensions.  Individual documents may make copious 
use of certain abbreviations, acronyms, etc.  By including them
in the optional document extension file, consistent spelling is
assured and the list of questioned words cut to zero. The
document extension file name is of the form 'filename__type'.ADD,
where 'filename.type' is the document being checked.  Example:
SPELL.RNO is the source file of this document.  SPELL__RNO.ADD
contains the strange but acceptable "words" in the source file.
Note the full file name has the "." converted to "__" if present,
and ".ADD appended. 
.le;Explicit Extensions.  The previous extensions are automatic;
if the files exist, they will be used.  By including specific files 
with the /L switch, particular collections of extensions can be 
made.  Consider the following example:
.literal

 >SPEL DECUS22.LTR/L:[-.DECUS]DECSLANG.ADD,[NDS.DDA]DECUS.OK

.end literal
In this case a text called DECUS22.LTR is checked. The dictionary
is temporarily extended with the words in these files: 
.LITERAL


                [COB.SPEL]NEWWORDS.ADD          (always)

                [SYS$LOGIN]MYWORDS.ADD          (if present)

                []DECUS22_LTR.ADD              	(if present)

                [-.DECUS]DECSLANG.ADD           (optional)

                [NDS.DDA]DECUS.OK               (optional)
.END LITERAL
.end list
.page
.note
ALL words in all of the dictionaries of the system are in lower case
and the extensions must be also.  Extension files should have
one word per line, starting at the beginning of the line.  Trailing
spaces are ignored and not required.  The words need not be in any
particular order because they will be sorted anyway and duplicates
eliminated.
.end note

To get the most benefit from this program, it is important to
build and maintain the NEWWORDS.ADD and MYWORDS.ADD files. This
is because many variations of words (plurals and -ing endings,
for example) are not yet in the dictionary.  New users will find
many correctly spelled words being called errors.  This is
because each writer usually has some uncommon words in his or her
vocabulary.  But by putting these in one of the extension files,
the false alarms can be reduced considerably.  As you gradually
get your special vocabulary into an extension file, the need for this 
activity decreases.

For long documents especially, it is very desirable to have
zero false alarms.  By putting the desired exceptions in the
document specific extension file, this can be achieved.  Then
when an edit of a long document is done, SPELL can be run
with an output file (such as TT:) requested.  If no errors were
introduced, you simply get the message "No errors found" on your
terminal.  This is much better than having to examine several dozen
false alarms to be sure nothing new was added.

If you prefer the abbreviated mode, you can specify a default output
file by defining it as the logical name SPEL__OUTPUT__FILE in your LOGIN.COM
file.  For example:

DEFINE SPEL__OUTPUT__FILE TT:

will alter the SPELL program behavior (for your terminal
only) so that it always shows just the erroneous lines on your terminal
without you needing to specify that mode.

For installation instructions and more detail on the internal working
of the program, read SPELL__PROGRAM.RNO.