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1 *spell.txt* For Vim version 7.0aa. Last change: 2005 Apr 15
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4 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar
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6
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7 Spell checking *spell*
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8
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9 1. Quick start |spell-quickstart|
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10 2. Generating a spell file |spell-mkspell|
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11 9. Spell file format |spell-file-format|
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12
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13 {Vi does not have any of these commands}
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14
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15 Spell checking is not available when the |+syntax| feature has been disabled
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16 at compile time.
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17
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18 ==============================================================================
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19 1. Quick start *spell-quickstart*
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20
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21 This command switches on spell checking: >
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22
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23 :setlocal spell spelllang=en_us
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24
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25 This switches on the 'spell' option and specifies to check for US English.
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26
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27 The words that are not recognized are highlighted with one of these:
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28 SpellBad word not recognized
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29 SpellRare rare word
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30 SpellLocal wrong spelling for selected region
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31
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32 Vim only checks words for spelling, there is no grammar check.
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33
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34 To search for the next misspelled word:
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35
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36 *]s* *E756*
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37 ]s Move to next misspelled word after the cursor.
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38
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39 *[s*
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40 [s Move to next misspelled word before the cursor.
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41 DOESN'T WORK YET!
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42
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43
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44 PERFORMANCE
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45
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46 Note that Vim does on-the-fly spellchecking. To make this work fast the
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47 word list is loaded in memory. Thus this uses a lot of memory (1 Mbyte or
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48 more). There might also be a noticable delay when the word list is loaded,
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49 which happens when 'spelllang' is set. Each word list is only loaded once,
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50 they are not deleted when 'spelllang' is made empty. When 'encoding' is set
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51 the word lists are reloaded, thus you may notice a delay then too.
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52
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53
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54 REGIONS
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55
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56 A word may be spelled differently in various regions. For example, English
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57 comes in (at least) these variants:
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58
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59 en all regions
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60 en_us US
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61 en_gb Great Britain
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62 en_ca Canada
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63
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64 Words that are not used in one region but are used in another region are
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65 highlighted with SpellLocal.
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66
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67 Always use lowercase letters for the language and region names.
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68
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69
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70 SPELL FILES
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71
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72 Vim searches for spell files in the "spell" subdirectory of the directories in
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73 'runtimepath'. The name is: LL-XXX.EEE.spl, where:
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74 LL the language name
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75 -XXX optional addition
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76 EEE the value of 'encoding'
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77
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78 Exception: Vim uses "latin1" when 'encoding' is "iso-8859-15". The euro sign
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79 doesn't matter for spelling.
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80
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81 Spelling for EBCDIC is currently not supported.
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82
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83 A spell file might not be available in the current 'encoding'. See
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84 |spell-mkspell| about how to create a spell file. Converting a spell file
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85 with "iconv" will NOT work.
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86
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87 If a spell file only uses ASCII characters the encoding can be omitted. This
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88 is useful for English: "en.spl" The file with encoding is checked first, thus
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89 you could have one with encoding that includes words with non-ASCII characters
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90 and use the ASCII file as a fall-back.
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91
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92 *E758* *E759*
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93 When loading a spell file Vim checks that it is properly formatted. If you
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94 get an error the file may be truncated, modified or for another Vim version.
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95
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96
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97 WORDS
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98
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99 Vim uses a fixed method to recognize a word. This is independent of
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100 'iskeyword', so that it also works in help files and for languages that
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101 include characters like '-' in 'iskeyword'. The word characters do depend on
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102 'encoding'.
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103
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104 A word that starts with a digit is always ignored.
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105
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106
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107 SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING
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108
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109 Files that use syntax highlighting can specify where spell checking should be
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110 done:
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111
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112 everywhere default
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113 in specific items use "contains=@Spell"
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114 everywhere but specific items use "contains=@NoSpell"
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115
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116 Note that mixing @Spell and @NoSpell doesn't make sense.
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117
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118 ==============================================================================
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119 2. Generating a spell file *spell-mkspell*
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120
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121 Vim uses a binary file format for spelling. This greatly speeds up loading
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122 the word list and keeps it small.
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123
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124 You can create a Vim spell file from the .aff and .dic files that Myspell
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125 uses. Myspell is used by OpenOffice.org and Mozilla. You should be able to
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126 find them here:
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127 http://lingucomponent.openoffice.org/spell_dic.html
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128
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129 :mksp[ell] {outname} {inname} ... *:mksp* *:mkspell*
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130 Generate spell file {outname}.spl from Myspell files
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131 {inname}.aff and {inname}.dic.
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132 Multiple {inname} arguments can be given to combine
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133 regions into one Vim spell file. Example: >
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134 :mkspell ~/.vim/spell/en /tmp/en_US /tmp/en_CA /tmp/en_AU
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135 < This combines the English word lists for US, CA and AU
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136 into one en.spl file.
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137 Up to eight regions can be combined. *E754* *755*
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138
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139 Since you might want to change the word list for use with Vim the following
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140 procedure is recommended:
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141
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142 1. Obtain the xx_YY.aff and xx_YY.dic files from Myspell.
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143 2. Make a copy of these files to xx_YY.orig.aff and xx_YY.orig.dic.
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144 3. Change the xx_YY.aff and xx_YY.dic files to remove bad words, add missing
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145 words, etc.
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146 4. Use |:mkspell| to generate the Vim spell file and try it out.
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147
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148 When the Myspell files are updated you can merge the differences:
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149 5. Obtain the new Myspell files as xx_YY.new.aff and xx_UU.new.dic.
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150 6. Use Vimdiff to see what changed: >
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151 vimdiff xx_YY.orig.dic xx_YY.new.dic
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152 7. Take over the changes you like in xx_YY.dic.
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153 You may also need to change xx_YY.aff.
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154 8. Rename xx_YY.new.dic to xx_YY.orig.dic and xx_YY.new.aff to xx_YY.new.aff.
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155
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156 ==============================================================================
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157 9. Spell file format *spell-file-format*
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158
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159 This is the format of the files that are used by the person who creates and
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160 maintains a word list.
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161
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162 Note that we avoid the word "dictionary" here. That is because the goal of
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163 spell checking differs from writing a dictionary (as in the book). For
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164 spelling we need a list of words that are OK, thus need not to be highlighted.
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165 Names will not appear in a dictionary, but do appear in a word list. And
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166 some old words are rarely used and are common misspellings. These do appear
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167 in a dictionary but not in a word list.
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168
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169 There are two files: the basic word list and an affix file. The affixes are
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170 used to modify the basic words to get the full word list. This significantly
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171 reduces the number of words, especially for a language like Polish. This is
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172 called affix compression.
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173
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174 The format for the affix and word list files is mostly identical to what
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175 Myspell uses (the spell checker of Mozilla and OpenOffice.org). A description
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176 can be found here:
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177 http://lingucomponent.openoffice.org/affix.readme ~
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178 Note that affixes are case sensitive, this isn't obvious from the description.
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179 Vim supports a few extras. Hopefully Myspell will support these too some day.
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180 See |spell-affix-vim|.
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181
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182 The basic word list and the affix file are combined and turned into a binary
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183 spell file. All the preprocessing has been done, thus this file loads fast.
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184 The binary spell file format is described in the source code (src/spell.c).
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185 But only developers need to know about it.
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186
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187 The preprocessing also allows us to take the Myspell language files and modify
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188 them before the Vim word list is made. The tools for this can be found in the
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189 "src/spell" directory.
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190
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191
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192 WORD LIST FORMAT *spell-wordlist-format*
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193
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194 A very short example, with line numbers:
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196 1 1234
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197 2 aan
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198 3 Als
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199 4 Etten-Leur
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200 5 et al.
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201 6 's-Gravenhage
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202 7 's-Gravenhaags
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203 8 bedel/P
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204 9 kado/1
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205 10 cadeau/2
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206
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207 The first line contains the number of words. Vim ignores it. *E760*
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208
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209 What follows is one word per line. There should be no white space after the
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210 word.
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211
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212 When the word only has lower-case letters it will also match with the word
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213 starting with an upper-case letter.
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214
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215 When the word includes an upper-case letter, this means the upper-case letter
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216 is required at this position. The same word with a lower-case letter at this
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217 position will not match. When some of the other letters are upper-case it will
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218 not match either.
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220 The same word with all upper-case characters will always be OK.
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222 word list matches does not match ~
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223 als als Als ALS ALs AlS aLs aLS
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224 Als Als ALS als ALs AlS aLs aLS
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225 ALS ALS als Als ALs AlS aLs aLS
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226 AlS AlS ALS als Als ALs aLs aLS
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228 Note in line 5 to 7 that non-word characters are used. You can include
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229 any character in a word. When checking the text a word still only matches
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230 when it appears with a non-word character before and after it. For Myspell a
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231 word starting with a non-word character probably won't work.
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232
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233 After the word there is an optional slash and flags. Most of these flags are
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234 letters that indicate the affixes that can be used with this word.
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235
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236 *spell-affix-vim*
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237 A flag that Vim adds and is not in Myspell is the "=" flag. This has the
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238 meaning that case matters. This can be used if the word does not have the
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239 first letter in upper case at the start of a sentence. Example:
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240
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241 word list matches does not match ~
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242 's morgens/= 's morgens 'S morgens 's Morgens
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243 's Morgens 's Morgens 'S morgens 's morgens
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244
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245 *spell-affix-mbyte*
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246 The basic word list is normally in an 8-bit encoding, which is mentioned in
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247 the affix file. The affix file must always be in the same encoding as the
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248 word list. This is compatible with Myspell. For Vim the encoding may also be
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249 something else, any encoding that "iconv" supports. The "SET" line must
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250 specify the name of the encoding. When using a multi-byte encoding it's
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251 possible to use more different affixes.
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252
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253 Performance hint: Although using affixes reduces the number of words, it
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254 reduces the speed. It's a good idea to put all the often used words in the
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255 word list with the affixes prepended/appended.
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256
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257
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258 vim:tw=78:sw=4:ts=8:ft=help:norl:
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