Spelling Checkers

• ispell is a fast screen-oriented spelling checker that shows you your errors in the context of the original file, and suggests possible corrections when it can figure them out. Compared to UNIX spell, it is faster and much easier to use. Ispell can also handle languages other than English.

  Aspell is a spelling checker written by Kevin Atkinson. Its primary advantage is that it is better at making suggestions when a word is seriously misspelled. For example, when given "trubble", ispell will suggest only "rubble", where aspell suggests "trouble" (as its first choice" as well as "dribble", "rubble", and a lot of other words. Its disadvantage is that the approximate-matching algorithm is specific to English.

  You normally use ispell or aspell inside the Emacs environment, actually in the mini buffer. You can invoke spell checking with M-x ispell-region or M-x ispell-buffer. The sequence M-s will usually do spell checking on a ``marked'' region. Please go to the silly emacs tricks section for more on these combinations.