SPELL(1)SPELL(1)
NAME
spell, sprog – find spelling errors
SYNOPSIS
spell
[
options
]
...
[
file
]
...
aux/sprog
[
options
]
[
-f
file
]
DESCRIPTION
Spell
looks up words from the named
files
(standard input default)
in a spelling list and places
possible misspellingswords
not sanctioned thereon the standard output.
Spell
ignores constructs of
troff(1)
and its standard preprocessors.
It understands these options:
-b
Check British spelling.
-v
Print all words not literally in the spelling list, with
derivations.
-x
Print on standard error, marked with
=,
every stem as it is looked up in the spelling list,
along with its affix classes.
As a matter of policy,
spell
does not admit multiple spellings of the same word.
Variants that follow general rules are preferred
over those that don’t, even when the unruly spelling is
more common.
Thus, in American usage, ‘modelled’, ‘sizeable’, and ‘judgment’ are
rejected in favor of ‘modeled’, ‘sizable’, and ‘judgement’.
Agglutinated variants are shunned: ‘crewmember’ and ‘backyard’
cede to ‘crew member’ and ‘back yard’ (noun) or ‘back-yard’
(adjective).
FILES
/sys/lib/amspell
American spelling list
/sys/lib/brspell
British spelling list
/bin/aux/sprog
The actual spelling checker.
It expects one word per line on standard input,
and takes the same arguments as
spell.
SOURCE
/rc/bin/spell
the script
/sys/src/cmd/spell
source for
sprog
SEE
deroff(1)
BUGS
The heuristics of
deroff(1)
used to excise formatting information are imperfect.
The spelling list’s coverage is uneven;
in particular biology, medicine, and chemistry, and
perforce proper names,
not to mention languages other than English,
are covered very lightly.