How to use this dictionary framework

====================================

Each dictionary has its own directory using the ISO639 language code.  Eg

Afrikaans uses af.  In each directory is an aspell, myspell and in some cases

an ispell directory - these contain the speller specific information.

Files and directories

---------------------

|-- Makefile

|-- af

|   |-- COPYING

|   |-- CREDITS

|   |-- ChangeLog

|   |-- INSTALL

|   |-- Makefile

|   |-- README

|   |-- VERSION

|   |-- aspell

|   |   |-- Copyright

|   |   |-- info.in

|   |-- ispell

|   |   |-- README

|   |   `-- afrikaans.aff

|   |-- myspell

|   |   |-- README_af_ZA.txt

|   |   |-- af_ZA.aff

|   |-- wordlists

|   |   |-- wordlist.nieuwoudt.in

Prerequisites

============

aspell - needs word-list-compress which is contained in the aspell package for

your system. Other tools needed to package and build are located in the utils

directory

myspell - the tools needed are in the utils directory

Required Files

==============

ispell

------

The framework can build ispell but it is disabled by default because we are not

completely sure how to build ispell dictionaries.

aspell

------

Copyright - details of the copyright holders etc.  The actual copyright text

is added based on a line in the info.in file.

info.in - some basic definitions for the aspell package including copyright

holders, license, language name etc.  Check the Afrikaans one for a good

understanding of its construction.  If you need more details then look at the

instructions in the latest aspell dictionary build system.  ?URL?

What can be problematic in this file is the "special" line:

	special ' **- - -*- 4 -*- 6 -*-

It is simple to understand.  The above says ' (apostrophe) is permissible at the

beginning of a word and the middle. - (dash) is allowed in the middle of a

word, etc

myspell

-------

README_lang_REGION.txt - a README containing Copyright info and installation

instructions.

lang_REGION.aff - the affix file.  Mostly these are based on ispell affix

compression.  Follow the instructions ?here? for converting an ispell affix file

to myspell.  An affix file allows you to compress a wordlist and expand it to

the exact same set of words.  If you have not developed affix rules for the

language then the minimum you need is a SET and TRY line.

SET - the character set used by the language.  Only ISO8859 character sets can

be used in MySpell.  Although I think you can define your own internal mapping

if your language does not match an ISO charset. (Need to confirm this)

TRY - a list of letters in order of frequency.  The python script 

src/wordlist/letter-frequency.py allows you to create a frequency list.

Other useful entries:

MAP - map similar characters eg eêë

REP - create REPlacement maps that are useful for mapping common spelling

mistakes. eg REP ph f - as in phone.

Affix compression:

SFX - a suffix

PFX - a prefix

FIXME add more details on creating these.

Setting up a new language

-------------------------

Apart from input files required by each of the different spellcheckers, as

listed above, the main requirements are a wordlist and some definitions in the

language Makefile.

The wordlist is simply a text list of words one per line - currently we store these in UTF-8 to

ensure ease of use in the future.  Lines that start with a # are treated as

comments and removed when the wordlist is processed.  The wordlists can be

called anything although we name them wordlist.*.in.  But as you list them in

the Makefile you can name them as you please.  We have kept existing wordlists

in tact and used separate files for new additions.  In English we have grouped

similar concepts together eg. bird names, city names, etc.  Some languages

group words according to parts of speech which may aid later use with advances

in grammar checkers or in agglutinative languages that may have rules as to how

words may be joined together.

The Makefile calls the generic Makefile called utils/Makefile.language.  The

language Makefile contains a number of definitions such as the name of the

language its character set, etc.  If you need to understand some of the build

process steps then look at the generic Makefile.

Add a VERSION file.  We default to using the date as spellcheckers are really

enhancements and refinements of wordlists, so a newer date should always

indicate a better spellchecker.

Also add you language to the Makefile in the dict/ directory.  Both as a build

rule and as a TARGET.

Building

--------

make - generate all dictionaries for that language

make count - will return simple stats on your wordlist

make aspell - create the aspell dictionary (relatively quick)

make myspell - create a myspell dictionary (looooong)

make clean - cleans up all packaged files

Outputs

-------

All outputs are placed in the respective spellchecker directories.

aspell - creates a tarball that would be compiled and installed on the target platform

myspell - creates a few outputs.  

	lang_REGION.zip - the basic MySpell spellchecker usable in OpenOffice.org

	pack-lang_REGION.xip - as above but installable by the offline installer

	lang-REGION.xpi - the same as lang_REGION.zip but installable in Mozilla

Resources - South African

-------------------------

Common Names of fish - http://www.fishbase.org/search.cfm

Birds - 

	Robert's Birds list - http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/fitzpatrick/docs/listintro.html

	http://www.wildlifesafari.info/south_african_birds.htm

	http://www.wildlifesafari.info/southern_africa_bird_checklist.htm

Trees - http://www.wildlifesafari.info/southern_africa_tree_list.html

Endangered species -

http://www.unep-wcmc.org/index.html?http://sea.unep-wcmc.org/isdb/CITES/Taxonomy/?displaylanguage=eng~main

http://www.e-gnu.com/check_005.html

http://www.e-gnu.com/check_003.html

http://www.e-gnu.com/check_004.html

Listed companies:

http://www.jse.co.za/listed/companies/la.html

Names Changes:

http://africanhistory.about.com/cs/southafrica/a/sa_new_name.htm

www.sapo.co.za - get downloadable postal codes for names of towns and suburbs