[gentoo-user] Re: question for en_GB users of myspell-en dictionaries
On Mon, 11 May 2015 20:29:37 + (UTC) James wirel...@tampabay.rr.com wrote: »Q« boxcars at gmx.net writes: tl;dr: Is an update to the myspell-en Oxford spelling dictionary really wanted by anyone? Oxford is known as the 'the reference' for unabridged dictionaries in English (at least this is what some psychotic professors tortured us with, in English 101/102 some decades ago; leather helmets, dinosaurs etc).. ymmv. For meanings and etymology, the OED is the gold standard, but we're just talking about spellchecking dictionaries here. The Oxford spelling is *not* the spelling used by most of the UK. It's the official spelling of the Oxford University Press and some academic journals, such as /The Lancet/, and people writing for those publications need it. Most Oxford dons don't use the Oxford spelling. IOW, only people who have to write according to style guides which explicitly specify Oxford spelling need an Oxford spellchecking dictionary. I'm interpreting the feedback from you and Joost to mean yes we want a good UK spelling dictionary, which you'll get. If it really is *Oxford* spelling one of you needs, I need to hear a more specific plea (e.g., I write for The Lancet/). My mother has a Ph.D. in English Lit, and there was always a concise OED around my house when I was growing up, but she was unaware of the Oxford spelling until I asked her about it recently. The main difference between standard UK spelling and Oxford spelling is that Oxford spelling uses -ize endings (criticize, optimize) whereas standard UK spelling uses -ise. Using Oxford will make most readers think you're using American spelling, since Americans use -ize. I hope it is available system wide for a variety of apps? Yes, these are system dictionaries. `equery d hunspell aspell enchant` will probably show you most of the things on your system that use these dictionaries. (I don't know what GNOME uses, but it probably depends on either hunspell or aspell.)
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: question for en_GB users of myspell-en dictionaries
On Tuesday 19 May 2015 17:43:57 »Q« wrote: The main difference between standard UK spelling and Oxford spelling is that Oxford spelling uses -ize endings (criticize, optimize) whereas standard UK spelling uses -ise. Using Oxford will make most readers think you're using American spelling, since Americans use -ize. Yes, and I've never understood that. The -ise version is true to its French origins (remember 1066?), while as far as I can see the -ize version has no precedent. It also doesn't help with knowing which ending to use in a particular case, so I've no idea why they've adopted it. Moreover, Oxford English insists on that egregious comma before nearly every and, which is just stupid. It causes as many problems as it avoids, and it's deadly to the flow of the sentence. I once argued about it with an American contributor to an e-mail list, and was told it's a matter of style. No. Wrong. It's just slavish obedience of an arbitrary rule which cannot be justified in any rational way. Just consider: and is equivalent to a comma in most cases; it's how a child starts out until it learns something more sophisticated. So pairing the two leaves us with nonsense. Just my two penn'orth. -- Rgds Peter
[gentoo-user] Re: question for en_GB users of myspell-en dictionaries
»Q« boxcars at gmx.net writes: tl;dr: Is an update to the myspell-en Oxford spelling dictionary really wanted by anyone? Oxford is known as the 'the reference' for unabridged dictionaries in English (at least this is what some psychotic professors tortured us with, in English 101/102 some decades ago; leather helmets, dinosaurs etc).. ymmv. If you don't know or don't care, you can safely ignore all the rest. Well, english is my only language and I still struggle with it But way too often the crappy english/brithish/globish dictionaries leave much to be desired; so yes I would emerge such a beast, particulary if it is unabridged or something close. app-dicts/myspell-en-20081002 works, but newer, better dictionaries are available. It's maintainer-wanted, so I'm taking a crack at an update. Ok, good news... My constraints are that I must leverage myspell-r2 and must use dictionaries that have been rolled up into LO/AOO extensions (OXTs). That path is extremely clear and easy, whereas all other paths are polished cliffs to this newbie. The issue is that I can only find one one OXT which provides Oxford spelling.⃰ I can install it, but it makes hunspell throw errors which make me think there's something inherently wrong with the files. So, is an update to the Oxford spelling dictionary really wanted by anyone? YES I hope it is available system wide for a variety of apps? If so, I will try to get a dev to help me accommodate you. If not, you can just keep using the 2008 dictionary and I can rest. Strangely, folks that hack around with fonts are often knowledgeable about literal_centric apps, ymmv. I find the current dictionaries often inadequate. http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/en/projectrelease/english-dictionary-based-oxford-english-dictionary-103 hth, James
