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From: horne-scott@cs.yale.edu (Scott Horne)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: American to English spelling
Message-ID: <27511@cs.yale.edu>
Date: 1 Dec 90 03:34:46 GMT
References: <27216@cs.yale.edu> <1990Nov29.153434.21259@unx.sas.com> <218@tivoli.UUCP>
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In article <218@tivoli.UUCP> lark@tivoli.UUCP (Lar Kaufman) writes:
<
<Issues of vocabulary and slang are always going to be handled poorly (if at all)
<by a spelling checker.

Of course.  This is the argument against those who would put every entry in
the _OED_ into their spelling checkers:  the spelling checkers would cease
to be useful, as most typos and misspellings would be regarded as correct.
Misspellings which happened to coincide with unwanted archaisms would pass
through.

And who minds if his spelling checker can't find `paradichlorobenzene'?
You can check that by hand.

Of course, I don't use a spelling checker at all, as I have perfect spelling.
<*boast*>

>On the other hand, spelling conventions (for example:
<colorize/colourise - has colourise made it to England yet?) are easily 
<detected. 
<
<Does your American dictionary list "gaol"?  Case closed...

_The American Heritage Dictionary_ (2d college edition) lists it as "Chiefly
Brit.".  Case reopened.

					--Scott

-- 
Scott Horne                               ...!{harvard,cmcl2,decvax}!yale!horne
horne@cs.Yale.edu      SnailMail:  Box 7196 Yale Station, New Haven, CT   06520
203 436-1817                    Residence:  Rm 1817 Silliman College, Yale Univ
Uneasy lies the head that wears the _gao1 mao4zi_.


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