Re: MacOSX builtin spellcheck support

Hi Remi,

> Is it really necessary to have yet another
> abstraction layer over the
> dictionaries ? What enchant does it basically the
> same thing that
> AppleSpell already does : control dictionary
> backends. Wouldn't it be
> overkill to have ispell running under AppleSpell
> running under Enchant
> which, through a SpellChecker subclass talk to the
> SpellManager which
> provide abiword with spelling service ? And a user
> having already
> ispell installed on their mac could download an
> abiword binary with
> enchant enable and having a second ispell running
> under enchant.

Yes, it is essential for "yet another abstraction
layer". AbiWord is a cross-platform product. Yet we
want to integrate as best as possible with the native
OS.

AbiWord on Mac should probably never ship with Ispell
as its spellchecker. Since we already require glib, we
should use Enchant, especially if Enchant can take
advantage of builtin MacOSX Services like the
AppleSpell service.

In the same sense, your "HAVE_APPLESPELL" class
implements a C++ abstraction layer of Abi's
spellchecker class. From a "there's too many
abstractions" sense, a willingness to implement this
in Abi and not in Enchant would lack both substance
and merit.

Right now, all we're talking about is writing a simple
Enchant backend which talks the AppleSpell protocol.
We're not yet proposing to code a plugin *for*
AppleSpell based on Enchant. Let's cross that bridge
when we come to it. We're not there yet.

Besides, since GnomeSpell/Evolution, GtkSpell/Gaim,
Kspell, and friends already use Enchant, providing an
AppleSpell backend to Enchant would give these apps
instant access to AppleSpell, which would in my
opinion be ideal.

> Anyway, if you thing there's a way to avoid all this
> confusion I could
> give a shot at the enchant pluggin...

I would greatly appreciate that. If not, I'll take
your code and craft it to my evil ends.

Thanks,
Dom

                
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Received on Fri Oct 8 03:12:20 2004