Subject: Re: 170 languages
From: Dom Lachowicz (cinamod@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Mar 13 2001 - 14:19:32 CST
> >phma
> > Where do you get 170 from? There are thousands. There are around 700
>languages
> > in PNG alone, which is enough to exhaust all the two-letter codes.
>
>It was me who introduced this number, this the number of
>languages in Word 2000 spellckecker (cca); it will be a while before
>our spellchecker supports more than this.
Ispell and Pspell don't support 170 languages *yet* but that's largely due
to lack of interest on some contributors parts (i.e. if no one takes the
time to submit a Ukranian dictionary, then there is no Ukranian
spell-checking). Of course, different langauges also can have different
rules for spell-checking, but that point is addressed below.
I can see this changing in the near future with the move of Linux/BSD into
the main-stream. It's not unlikely that someone will get paid by say,
RedHat, to create a Pspell dictionary/spell-check-rule because RedHat has a
customer with that demand/requirement. And even if not, there's always the
*good* chance that someone from the Ukraine might step up and code support
for it someday just because he'd like to spell-check his document. What's
good about this approach is that a lib like Pspell or Ispell is available
for *every* app on the system to use and not tied into the office suite
per-se. And with a bit of work, these tools won't be Unix specific any more.
(IIRC, of course) only 1 dictionary gets installed by default for MSword.
You have to have the CDROM lying around in the office if you want to
spell-check any of the other 169 languages, or maybe have to go out and
download/buy the dictionary online. With Pspell or Ispell all you have to do
is grab the appropriate package online free-of-charge.
In conclusion, I think that we're in better shape than we think.
Dom
always an optimist
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