Re: Anybody got a spell-checking interface thang

[jwbaxter@olympus.net (John W. Baxter)]

At 20:37 4/10/95, Douglas C. Merrill wrote:
>If you're willing to have your users buy SpellSwell, your process can
>communicate using the WordServices suite of AppleEvents (pretty nifty, but
>not very commonly used).  Not too hard, and quite nicely stable.

The Word Services route is attractive (SpellSwell is a good server, so
one's users have someplace to go).  But one should use the Word Services
spell checking interface in its generic form, and allow the users to select
which Word Services spell checker they wish to use.  The idea is to let
them select, not force them to buy SpellSwell if they already have another
Word Services spell checker.

As an example, see the "Add Word Service..." command at the bottom of
commercial Eudora's Edit menu.  Likewise, InfoDepot does things this way.

>Also, Excalibur (by Rick Zaccone, zaccone@sol.cs.bucknell.edu) is a
>freeware (or shareware, can't remember) spell checker that also listens to
>AppleEvents (the linkage is nicely demonstrated in Alpha, a shareware
>editor written by Peter Keleher pete@cs.rice.edu).

  I believe that Alpha is another Word Services client, so doing the WS
stuff right gives the user that choice.

  If one needs a special vocabulary, I would guess that one would write a
"Word Services Spelling Trainer", which induces a generic WS Spell Checker
to learn the specialized words.

  There are aspects to the Word Services suite beyond spell checking, too.

  --John

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jwbaxter@pt.olympus.net (John W. Baxter)  Port Ludlow, WA