Halfbakery: Spelling
Halfbakery spell checker   (+4, -17)  [vote for, against]
I think you all know what I'm gonna say.....

Ok, seeing as alot of people on here have a problem with people spelling improperly I'm thinking that a built-in spell checker on the Halfbakery site would be a damn good idea. Just a little button on the side that suggests corrections to your new idea or annotation. It couldn't be that hard to implement could it? It would stop alot of arguments and unnecessary comments freeing up server space in the long run too.
-- FunkyMunky, Mar 08 2006

End-user_20local_20...0editing#1033150289 [xaviergisz, Mar 08 2006]

There is no need to implement it http://www.google.c...windows+spell+check
Take your pick [Ling, Mar 08 2006]

More specifically for within Internet Explorer http://www.petri.co...ternet_explorer.htm
[Ling, Mar 08 2006]

IEspell http://www.iespell.com/
This one works superbly, I use it often. [reensure, Mar 08 2006]

sp. "a lot".
-- spidermother, Mar 08 2006


*sigh* // unnecessary comments //

That link doesn't really refer to this site.
-- FunkyMunky, Mar 08 2006


The main problem is that this would increase the complexity of this elegantly simple site.

Any aspect of postings here is likely to be picked on - spelling, grammar, practicality, bakedness, correctness of information. Just take a few deep breaths, have a laugh to yourself at those bloody pedants with nothing better to do, and ignore it, make a witty comeback, or correct the mistake if you agree.

Unfortunately, making a fuss will just attract more of the same (which was kind of the point of my first anno).
-- spidermother, Mar 08 2006


It's never bothered me, why should it now?

If ti ain,t brake why fux it?
-- skinflaps, Mar 08 2006


Well said [skinflaps]!

On the whole, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Then again, I installed 'Spellbound' for Firefox, a really nice, inobtrusive spell checker - you just right-click and choose Check Spelling - it's pretty good.
-- zen_tom, Mar 08 2006


done to death several times over (sadly, I can't find any of the ideas).

Why not use a dictionary?

Alternatively, type the idea in Word first, spell check it, then paste into the halfbakery.
-- jonthegeologist, Mar 08 2006


Edit fields should have a spell checker. Solve the damn problem once.

Funny though how Pavlovian the reaction is to this type of suggestion.
-- theircompetitor, Mar 08 2006


[halfbakery] looks like it is spelled right to me.
-- xandram, Mar 08 2006


"Edit fields should have a spell checker. Solve the damn problem once."

True, but these are available as opt-in options for your browser. PLEASE don't encourage Microsoft to put one in the OS. (We had a pile of problems with a corporate trade entry system one time, because the screens were written in VB or maybe Access, and somehow a spell checker was activated with one release, and it would autocorrect security symbols to "real" words, completely bollixing things up.)
-- DrCurry, Mar 08 2006


They could put one in the OS and let the user decide whether to use it or not. Removing or not implementing useful features because someone might use it badly isn't a great design philosophy.
-- bristolz, Mar 08 2006


" ... it is spelled right to me."

HAHAHA!
-- reensure, Mar 08 2006


bris: I know you like to take the opposite tack to me, but sticking too many application features in the operating system is exactly what is wrong with Windows.
-- DrCurry, Mar 08 2006


What, and spoil all our fun?
-- DesertFox, Mar 08 2006


Is exactly what YOU THINK is wrong with Windows. I don't mean to automatically take the opposite tack but I do think that basic systems such as language handling should be a part of the OS as well as broad abilities to deal with file types (media players, etc). I think these kinds of things are fundamental and should just be built in.

I tend to bristle when folks aver personal opinion as fact.
-- bristolz, Mar 08 2006


If i can chip in, [bristolz], [DrCurry]...

You're right that these types of things of "build it in" sentiments have caused problems in Windows, but those are more due to problems with just how modular (or not) the architecture is. Building in spell checking into edits does not really have to mean that the EDIT window per say would have to have it in addition to MS Word, etc -- spell checking a string could simply be a low level OS function.

As to [bristolz]' point, surely you wouldn't expect every program to have it's own treatment of speech recognition. As an interface becomes common place, it's natural for it to migrate into the OS.
-- theircompetitor, Mar 08 2006


It's too much fun to point our spelling errors, and my own has improved as a consequence of haunting this site, so (-).
-- normzone, Mar 08 2006


/ I tend to bristle when folks aver personal opinion /

In America, we spell it "offer".
-- bungston, Mar 08 2006


Just learn to spel.
-- wagster, Mar 08 2006


"Offer" and "aver" have a significant amount of difference in emphasis.
-- bristolz, Mar 08 2006


As any fule kno.

Maybe we need a dictionary as well as a spell checker.
-- egbert, Mar 08 2006


Idea alternators are the choice of engineers these days.
-- normzone, Mar 08 2006


History will probably remember that Microsoft were responsible for standardiSing the english language throughout the world. But not in my life-time.
-- Ling, Mar 09 2006


Eiter tat, or reely concentraite on what yor dong.
-- the fiddler, Mar 09 2006


Elderly woman puts back of hand to her forehead, sways a little.

Pantograph arm shoots out of nearest wall, steadies her.

"Oh, dear, I must be having one of my spells - Fortunately, the Halfbakery Spell Checker prevented me from incurring a fall, and you know how at our age..."
-- normzone, Mar 09 2006


So most of you are saying that you would rather bitch and whine and maybe even argue about something as stupid as a spelling mistake? Do you really think that correcting peoples spelling is fun? I can't see the fun in that.

The comment about using Word first is valid, but why use up more time and computing power just so that your idea can be spelt properly and be grammatically correct? In my opinion all computers run too many applications as it is already.
-- FunkyMunky, Mar 09 2006


//It would stop alot of arguments and unnecessary comments freeing up server space in the long run too// Maybe a punctuation checker too?
-- coprocephalous, Mar 09 2006


I agree with the idea of spelling checks.
Automatic corections are somthing that Im not sure about becuase it could be sadi that an automatic corection reqiures knolwedge of what you realy meant. If so, the average readre could also undertsand it. Unless, of course, you wnated to sort out a few tpyos, or give a beter immpression. But under-linning a real error for manaul change would teach the user more sucessfuly.
-- Ling, Mar 09 2006


Always remember - spelling chequers are knot infallible.
-- coprocephalous, Mar 09 2006


<chuckles to himself>
-- jonthegeologist, Mar 09 2006


Perhaps a system similar to Multiply's could be used. There you can just submit a page as you do here, or you can preview it and run it through a spell checker. It doesn't help that the spell checker is woeful, but it's nice to have it as an option sometimes.
-- hidden truths, Mar 09 2006


//So most of you are saying that you would rather bitch and whine and maybe even argue about something as stupid as a spelling mistake?// - Not really, but I would relish a good argument about whether it's worth whining about people who whine about spelling.

And we haven't even started on people who have issues with the complex manner in which sentences constructed sometimes are and whether about them we should be whining.
-- wagster, Mar 09 2006


Aside from all the arguments about where, exactly, in the process the spell-checker should be located, I would suggest that it is good practice to type up your annos (particularly if they are lengthy ones) in some sort of text editor before posting them. There's nothing more annoying than writing up a really insightful and cleverly argued point (so I'm told) only to see it lost into the great void that is the connection drop-out.
-- DrBob, Mar 09 2006


Or to loose all credibillity through stupid typos.
-- egbert, Mar 09 2006


//something as stupid as a spelling mistake// I agree, spelling mistakes are pretty stupid.

The old joke "if they have artificial intelligence, why not artificial stupidity?" is sort of back to front. Stupidity is highly desirable in computers. In the first instance, computers should (sorry [bristolz], in my opinion, computers should) take input literally and not change or otherwise second guess it. That's partly why I'm not in favour of preemptive spellcheckers. Especially in the hb, where deliberate misspellings, neologisms etc abound.

//Pavlovian// That rings a bell.
-- spidermother, Mar 09 2006


Obviously not.
-- skinflaps, Mar 09 2006


bristolz: a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since we last spoke, but, um, no, I am stating personal *experience* as fact, not an opinion. I think that's entirely fair.
-- DrCurry, Mar 10 2006


You say potato and I say spud. It is your opinion (experience?) that putting too many application features in the OS is what is wrong with Windows.

Fine. My opinion is that OS features and application features regardless of where they live in the codebase should be presented to the user in a cohesive, consistent and useful manner. In fact, I see no advantage to exposing them as specifically application or OS features--I just want them to work. Since the OS is ubiquitously available, to me it makes sense to park things such as spell checking and other language services in the OS facilities rather than in individual applications. This approach seems to me to work well for OSX.

None of this is an excuse for poor design regardless of implementation details.
-- bristolz, Mar 10 2006


I'd like to see this, not as an option, but as a standard feature, as follows:

When you add an idea or annotation and hit OK, you are shown a preview page with an Edit and a Submit option. Craigslist has something like that.

Any words not familiar to the spelling library are just shown in a different color, but only on the preview page. This gives the poster a chance to correct spelling mistakes.

A preview page wouldn't just be useful for spell checking. It would be great for careless people like me who tend to keep making incremental corrections.
-- jmvw, Nov 04 2006


Once again, browser choice comes into play - I hate to be a Mozilla bore, but Firefox 2 has built-in spell checking as standard now, and, from what I heard somewhere, so does the new IE.
-- zen_tom, Nov 04 2006


Thank you. I updated my Firefox and this is great. I still think a preview might not be a bad idea.
-- jmvw, Nov 05 2006


(somebody once sent this to me on myspace)

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.

The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!
-- jaksplat, Jan 05 2007


But it dseno't gvie poelpe an ecuxse to be lzay fcrkeus.
-- hidden truths, Jan 08 2007


It's spelled "monkey" not "munky"
-- quantum_flux, Nov 19 2007



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