Re: [OOo-Hebrew] Spell checker on Windows

On Mon, Sep 11, 2006, Yitzchak Gale wrote about "Re: [OOo-Hebrew] Spell checker on Windows":
> No, I think most people are quite satisfied with Word's spell
> checker. It can be done.

When you say people are "quite satisfied" with Word's spell-checker, are
you sure you actually mean "satisfied" and not "used to"? There's a big
difference, you know.

>From my experience, people make about Word's spell-checker complaints similar
to those you made about Hspell: How come it forces me to add a yud where
I was taught not to? How come if I type a random string of letters, it
accept it as a valid word?
Often, people who know that I wrote a spell checker come to me asking me
why Word asks them to write something in a way they think is a mistake :-)

In fact, before I started working on Hspell and wasn't very familiar with the
world of spell checking, I was under the impression that Word's spell-checker
sucked. I noticed that many times it accepted incorrect words (probably as
meaning something else than I had intended), and many times I didn't
understand its choices of when to add yod and when not to.

But when I started to work on Hspell, I realised that Word's spell checker
DOES NOT suck. The false-negative problem (random words look correct) is
inherent in Hebrew because of its high "density", and Word's spelling
standard is actually 99% compliant with the Academia's standard, and usually
follows the Academia's rules of where yods and wawa should be added.

Anyway, like Dan explained, making Hspell use any other standard but the
Academia's is quite easy - perhaps as little as a day of work. But, where
are we going to get that "other standard"? I'm not aware of anybody
publishing a coherent standard other than the Academia. I'd be happy if
you, or other readers of this list, point us to such a standard, or can
volunteer to create a new one. I can help you get started: I am now
preparing a long document about the Academia's standard and how it applies
to Hspell; This standard contains dozens of cases and subcases, and like
I said most other standards you'll see, including Word's, will agree with
the Academia in 90% of the cases.

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Nadav Har'El                        |       Tuesday, Sep 12 2006, 20 Elul 5766
[email protected]             |-----------------------------------------
Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |I used to work in a pickle factory, until
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |I got canned.
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