I tend to agree, but wish to add a few comments. I went to Source Forge and noticed there were a lot a spell checkers out there, including some that want to be an API/ There is no need to compete with them, but cooperation would be a good idea. If anyone wishes to, please look at them and see if any might be a good replacement to what we have. Being able to access the source code night also be a boon. The following should be part of out requirements: 1.. Able to adjust to multiple languages 2.. Able to add individual files for words the users want to add to the dictionary. My thinking if multiple people are using the same computer, each person should have their own override file (in user/AppData/Local/?). 3.. Give reasonable suggestions for misspelled words. This may include Keyboard recognition for typo errors. (Like a Russian Keyboard). Howard _____________________________________________________________________________________________ I have examined some of the materials available for the CSAPI.
Here are my initial observations: 1. The CSAPI is closely-held by Microsoft. It is evidently not part of their Open Specifications set. 2. Apparently a license agreement is required in order to have the necessary materials and also learn of any maintenance/change to the API over time. 3. The implementation is via a DLL that can be registered on Microsoft Windows and thereby relied upon by Microsoft Office products that will use the CSAPI to access a spell-checker for a given language. CONCLUSION To provide implementations of such DLLs at Apache OpenOffice, these would require a development offered as open source under the Apache License. This would, by the way, probably impair the use of spelling lexicons that are provided under incompatible licenses and probably unwelcome at Microsoft. It seems to me that the closely-held nature of the CSAPI and requirement for license agreements is completely out of scope for Apache OpenOffice and not compatible with policies of the Apache Software Foundation. This is simply a road we cannot go down. I suggest that we not go any farther investigating this proposal unless those encumbrances disappear. - Dennis PS: A third party could engage with Microsoft and supply a CSAPI-accepting implementation. That might employ the same tools that AOO employs for processing supplied lexicons. The third party would have to navigate the licenses on such lexicons as well and ensure that this does not introduce any licensing condition that is unacceptable to Microsoft. The independent third party also might not be so opposed to empowering the use of CSAPI-delivered spelling checkers by Microsoft products as I imagine the contributors of lexicons to AOO might be. > -----Original Message----- > From: Alexey Zhuravliov [mailto:alexz...@voliacable.com] > Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2016 02:46 > To: Rory O'Farrell <dev@openoffice.apache.org> > Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL][API][WINDOWS]Whether Common Spelling API can be > implemented > > Hello Rory, > > Wednesday, May 25, 2016, 9:27:48 PM, you wrote: > > >> DEH>> Please provide more information about the Common Spelling API > > ROF> Unless this does something dramatically different and improved > ROF> from the existing spelling system, the English dictionary of > ROF> which is very well serviced by Marcus, I suggest that, on the "If > ROF> it's not broke don't fix it" principle we should leave the spelling > system alone. > > This could be new and useful feature when other programs could use > AOO's spell checking engine. If MS's API can't be implemented maybe > AOO developers can create a new interface. > > >> >>> Can Common Spelling API (which was in MS Office up to version > 2000 as > >> >>> far as I know) be implemented in AOO on Windows. > -- > Best regards, > Alexey Zhuravliov > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org
