Its it possible to add a spell checker

[3db]

My typing skills sukcs

 

[markw]

Download the Google toolbar. There may be other ways but this wirks for me.

 

[bandphan]

My typing skills sukcs

what browser are you using?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

firefox & chrome both have one built-in

 

[AVRat]

I use Word first then copy it over.

 

[j_garcia]

Yep, just use Firefox. I only use Word to check something I'm really not sure of

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I simply trust browser spell check and it fails - I just google it

 

[sholling]

Firefox's spelling checker works fine.

 

[Nemo128]

To OP:

The issue with a spell-checker for the website itself is one of invasion. The site uses a PHP-based bulletin board with a MySQL backend database. Long story short, it's a scripted page that your browser renders. Once it's displayed on your screen, its interaction with you stops until you actually submit something back to the site through a form button.

An active spell checker, one that works as you type in the post boxes, would require a client-side program. The most used option for this is a Java applet. That applet would be downloaded from AH to your local machine and run by your Java Virtual Machine. Not that it's a bad thing, but it's not done on the server anyway, so you may as well use your locally-install word processor or browser add-on.

A spell-checker would require a pretty heavy index of entries and it would require a lot of code. Can it be done? Absolutely, it's something I could whip up given enough time. Is it worth it? Heck no. The work required to make this happen, and the fact that it's still a client-side application, would probably make it a pointless task for the AH owners.

 

[jostenmeat]

I find that most spell checkers, including FFs, mistakenly takes many words as misspelled, that were actually correctly spelled to begin with. I don't even pay attention to the red squiggly lines. (There are so many of them anyways once you also add all of the acronyms and proper nouns we use here.)

But, for those who are spelling-challenged, I think it's a great idea to use this tool. Just be wary of the auto-correcting, or whatever you call it. Some people keep spelling "definitely" as "defiantly", because that's what Word gives them as a suggestion when he/she misspells the word.

If people could just correctly use "you're" instead of "your" when called for, I would be satisfied for a while. The same goes for "they're" instead of "their", when called for.

Or, what adwilk's sig says.

Examples:

I think [strike]your[/strike] you're right.

Sometimes, I find that [strike]their[/strike] they're not always right.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I find that most spell checkers, including FFs, mistakenly takes many words as misspelled, that were actually correctly spelled to begin with. I don't even pay attention to the red squiggly lines. (There are so many of them anyways once you also add all of the acronyms and proper nouns we use here.)

But, for those who are spelling-challenged, I think it's a great idea to use this tool. Just be wary of the auto-correcting, or whatever you call it. Some people keep spelling "definitely" as "defiantly", because that's what Word gives them as a suggestion when he/she misspells the word.

If people could just correctly use "you're" instead of "your" when called for, I would be satisfied for a while. The same goes for "they're" instead of "their", when called for.

Or, what adwilk's sig says.

Examples:

I think [strike]your[/strike] you're right.

Sometimes, I find that [strike]their[/strike] they're not always right.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

 

[no. 5]

I find that most spell checkers, including FFs, mistakenly takes many words as misspelled, that were actually correctly spelled to begin with.

Yeah, Firefox doesn't like "subwoofer" for example.

I used to use ieSpell, before I switched to Firefox, and that has the ability to look up dictionary definitions. Helpful you're wondering if it's "their" or "they're".

 

[Nemo128]

I find that most spell checkers, including FFs, mistakenly takes many words as misspelled, that were actually correctly spelled to begin with.

I'm glad you brought that up. It illustrates the problem of creating a site-specific applet for this purpose.

To create this applet, we (developer or company, w/e) would have to either find an established data set that specifies the acceptable words AND a dataset that contains the grammatical rules, or we would have to create our own.

Using an established dataset, like the one MS uses in their Office products or an online one like Websters/Oxford, would simplify the creation, but only if they actually allow access to the dataset. If not, imagine recreating individually every acceptable word AND grammar rule! That tasks alone would take an individual developer half a lifetime to create.

I'm going to do some research into this, I'd love to give everyone some definitive answers about the availability of dictionary databases and grammar rule datasets.

UPDATE: I did confirm that Oxford and Websters do not allow access to their datasets without hefty licensing fees. However, there is an open source dictionary library called ASpell which is used in my favorite multi-protocol chat client Pidgin. ASpell has dictionaries for tons of languages, but there are no grammar rules.

So there you have it. Creating a spell checker based on open source software is doable, but the grammar checker would still be incredibly difficult to manage without plenty of dedicated time.

 

[jonnythan]

If Firefox puts the red squigglies under a word you know is spelled correctly, just right click it and add to dictionary.

 

[jostenmeat]

I'm glad you brought that up. It illustrates the problem of creating a site-specific applet for this purpose.

To create this applet, we (developer or company, w/e) would have to either find an established data set that specifies the acceptable words AND a dataset that contains the grammatical rules, or we would have to create our own.

Using an established dataset, like the one MS uses in their Office products or an online one like Websters/Oxford, would simplify the creation, but only if they actually allow access to the dataset. If not, imagine recreating individually every acceptable word AND grammar rule! That tasks alone would take an individual developer half a lifetime to create.

I'm going to do some research into this, I'd love to give everyone some definitive answers about the availability of dictionary databases and grammar rule datasets.

You'd have to decide which type of spelling dataset you even want: descriptivist or prescriptivist. Webster's is the former, which means words like irregardless, ****face, ****head, mother******, will all be entries.