Spell Checker

Topic: Spell Checker (Read 2188 times)

Spell Checker

2018-01-14, 15:53:08

Can anyone tell me how the spellcheck on Otter is supposed to work?
I'm using the latest weeklies.
I gather that you're supposed to use hunspell compatible didtionaries, but I have none installed at the moment.
Right clicking on a text input box shows nothing under the "Dictionaries" entry on the popup menu.
I've tried finding dictionaries, and putting them into a "dictionaries" folder within my Otter profile folder, but still nothing.
There seem to be several formats of hunspell dictionaries available though, which type does the implementation in Otter need?
Thanks, Dave.

Re: Spell Checker

Reply #1 – 2018-01-14, 20:23:21

Run cmd, cd to where hunspell.exe is stored and run hunspell.exe -D. This will show you what directories Hunspell is looking in for dictionary files.

Once that's done you'll have to tell Otter what dictionary you want to use in about:config, e.g. Browser/SpellCheckDictionary: en_US.

Re: Spell Checker

Reply #2 – 2018-01-17, 01:03:09

Ah, thank you!
Sorry for the delay in responding, I didn't get an e-mail notification of your reply for some reason.
From what you're saying, I've got to install hunspell separately. I was assuming that it came with the browser!

Hunspell.exe isn't anywhere on my system anyway, so I will have to find it.
Cheers, Dave.

Re: Spell Checker

Reply #3 – 2018-01-17, 19:15:28

I'm assuming it's the same in Windows as it is in *nix systems. I was just giving you a possible lead and it may be inaccurate. But I didn't say it necessarily had to be separate. First look it up in Otter's own directory.

Re: Spell Checker

Reply #4 – 2018-01-17, 19:41:58

Thanks, I have made some progress since my last message!
I found a us-EN dictionary, which consists of a en-US.aff file and a en-US.dic file.
I put them both into the otter\profile\dictionaries folder, and they are being recognised.
I now have an entry "American English (United States) [US]" entry on the menu.
Unfortunately as soon as I try to use it, I get a crash in ibstdc++-6.dll reported.
Is this a Windows XP problem perhaps? I hope not.

Re: Spell Checker

Reply #5 – 2018-01-18, 06:24:56

I have now tried this under Windows 7...

In my profiles directory I created a subdirectory dictionaries and put - in my case - four files there: en_US.dic, en_US.aff, de_AT_frami.dic and de_AT_frami.aff. After a restart, one of the two dictionaries can be selected via a right click over a text input box. When writing text and making an error, the word in error is being underlined. A right click over it however shows no suggestions. The entry in about:config/Browser/SpellCheckDictionary apparently remains empty, but the selected dictionary remains selected between the sessions. Explicitly entering a selection into about:config/Browser/SpellCheckDictionary apparently didn't change anything.

Also, it apparently does not work after copy pasting the text into the box. A word has to be actively (erroneously) written/changed, in order to be underlined.

Also, in spite of selected dictionary apparently being remembered somewhere (even between the sessions), it seems that all (in my case both) dictionaries are active at the same time!

Re: Spell Checker

Reply #6 – 2018-01-18, 18:22:27

I've now found and added an en_GB dictionary, and made that the default in about:config.
It correctly appears ticked as the in-use choice when I look in the "Dictionaries" right click menu.
It's still crashing every time I right click in a text box however. I have Norton Crashguard installed, which allows me to revive it, and I can then enter text into the box, as I am doing now, but every single word is marked as being mis-spelled!

Re: Spell Checker

Reply #7 – 2018-01-29, 19:36:57

Spell check still crashing in weekly #212.
Also does exactly the same with a clean profile.
Anyone any ideas?

Re: Spell Checker

Reply #8 – 2018-03-01, 21:40:37

@DaveH, that sounds like issue specific to Windows XP. :-/

@Borut, these are known limitations.
I was experimenting on bringing suggestions menu together with @Frenzie but it's not an easy task and requires fragile hacks.

Re: Spell Checker

Reply #9 – 2018-03-02, 20:49:33

Quote from: Emdek on 2018-03-01, 21:40:37

@DaveH, that sounds like issue specific to Windows XP. :-/

Oh dear, I was afraid you were going to say that!

Is that because hunspell isn't compatible with XP, or is it an Otter thing?

Re: Spell Checker

Reply #10 – 2018-03-07, 10:30:39

@DaveH, might be a hunspell issue, no idea, debugging XP issues is not trivial nowadays.