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AP Spell Checker 4.0 by PalWare & the Best Free Spell Checker mini-poll
Thread poster: Nikita Kobrin
Nikita Kobrin
Nikita Kobrin  Identity Verified
Lithuania
Local time: 16:03
Member (2010)
English to Russian
+ ...
Apr 3, 2004

With AP Spell Checker spelling correction is made easy for just about any document that you create on your computer. With just a few mouse clicks, you can correct spelling in your Web mail, simple text editor, or anywhere where a spell checker is needed.

AP Spell Checker in minimized mode:



AP Spell Checker in action:



Regards,
Nikita Kobrin
======

ICQ: 233779923

[Edited at 2004-04-05 13:55]
 
Samuel Murray
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English to Afrikaans
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Isn't APSC abandonware? Apr 5, 2004

Nikita Kobrin wrote:
APSC: http://www.buzzys.net/spellcheck.html[/quote]

Buzzy's site seems to be a warez page for this product which, AFAIK, is unofficially abandonware.
 
Nikita Kobrin
Nikita Kobrin  Identity Verified
Lithuania
Local time: 16:03
Member (2010)
English to Russian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Re: Isn't APSC abandonware? Apr 5, 2004

And so what?

Samuel Murray-Smit wrote:

Buzzy's site seems to be a warez page for this product which, AFAIK, is unofficially abandonware.


Hi Samuel,

Thank you for enriching my vocabulary with the term "abandonware". I have never heard it before. I've found the following definition of the word (extract):

"Abandonware is computer software which is no longer being sold or supported by the company that made it.

Abandonware's copyright is frequently no longer defended. This can be due to intentional non-enforcement by its owners due to the software's age or obsolescence, but sometimes because the corporate copyright holder went out of business without transferring ownership, leaving no one to defend the copyright."

To some extend we can call APSC abandonware. It is no longer supported by Palware and their website has gone. But as far as I know APSC was always free.

In any case, Samuel, I don't quite understand the idea of your post. What do you suggest? Not to use APSC only because it's abandonware? Just to put it in a dustbin?

And why do you call Buzzy's site a warez page? He didn't crack the app or anything like that, he doesn't even have a download file on his website. All he does is that he gives a discription of the software and a link to where it's possible to download the app.

And I'm thankful to him as well as to the creator of this software. It works fine for me.

BTW, folks, does anybody know any other good free spell checkers? I'm especially interested in those able to spellcheck not only English texts but also texts in other languages (Russian in my case). Let's determine the best freeware in this category.

I can also recommend ieSpell - Spell Checker add-on for Internet Explorer. It's not bad but I prefer APSC. It's less convenient but more functional and stable. Besides that you can use APSC anywhere and ieSpell is only good within Internet Explorer and its clones.

So, my nominee for the Best Free Spell Checker is APSC. What will be yours?

NK
======

ICQ: 233779923

[Edited at 2004-04-05 15:58]
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 15:03
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Answers to your Mr Nikita's questions Apr 5, 2004

Nikita Kobrin wrote:
To some extend we can call APSC abandonware. It is no longer supported by Palware and their website has gone. But as far as I know APSC was always free.


The fact that a program is distributed for free does not mean the authors of the software give everyone permission to distribute it.

And why do you call Buzzy's site a warez page? He doesn't even have a download file on his website.


In that case I apologise. I thought he was offering it for download (it certainly looked that way, but now I see that he's hotlinked a copy from Mr Seely's college web space).

BTW, folks, does anybody know any other good free spell checkers?


APSC is the best there is, I'm afraid. OpenOffice has free spell-checkers in many languages. Aspell and Ispell doesn't seem to work well in Windows. The Spellchecker for Editboxes sometimes work and sometimes doesn't.


[Edited at 2004-04-05 14:05]
 
Nikita Kobrin
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Lithuania
Local time: 16:03
Member (2010)
English to Russian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
TinySpell 1.3 by KEDMI Scientific Computing Apr 5, 2004

Samuel, thanx for your response.

Meanwhile I have just found another free spell-checker TinySpell 1.3 (HERE you will find a review).



Developer's description (excerpt):

Occasionally you need to check the spelling of words in an application that does not include a spelling checker and you don't want to launch your word processor just for that. This is when tinySpell becomes handy. It is a small utility that allows you to easily and quickly check the spelling of words in any Windows application. tinySpell monitors your typing on the fly and alerts you whenever it detects a misspelled word. It also checks the spelling of every word you copy to the clipboard.
tinySpell installs itself in the system tray for easy access. It comes with an American-English dictionary containing more than 110,000 words.

Has anybody tried this app? What's your impression?

NK
======

ICQ: 233779923
 
Samuel Murray
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Netherlands
Local time: 15:03
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Interesting but lacks biggest feature Apr 6, 2004

Nikita Kobrin wrote:
TinySpell 1.3
http://www.megspace.com/computers/tinyspell/[/quote]

Not bad, but it lacks the biggest two features that translators may find useful: The ability to create a main dictionary in another language, and the ability to bulk edit the custom dictionary. At present you can edit the custom dictionary one word at a time.
 
Barnaby Capel-Dunn
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Local time: 15:03
French to English
Thanks Nikita Apr 6, 2004

Your contributions are always interesting. Right up my street!

All the best

Barnaby
 
Nikita Kobrin
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Lithuania
Local time: 16:03
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English to Russian
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TOPIC STARTER
Good news: APSC can check spelling in many languages! Apr 6, 2004

Thanx for your warm words, Barnaby!

Reading a help file of APSC I found the following part:

Check spelling in other languages

To check spelling in other languages, a foreign language dictionary must first be opened. To open a foreign language dictionary, do the following:

1) Click "Options," "Change spelling options..."

2) Click "Close Standard" for all currently opened standard dictionaries.

3) Click "Open Standard...... See more
Thanx for your warm words, Barnaby!

Reading a help file of APSC I found the following part:

Check spelling in other languages

To check spelling in other languages, a foreign language dictionary must first be opened. To open a foreign language dictionary, do the following:

1) Click "Options," "Change spelling options..."

2) Click "Close Standard" for all currently opened standard dictionaries.

3) Click "Open Standard..."

4) Search in the Windows\System directory for the foreign language dictionary you wish to open. Select the .vtd file and click "OK."

5) Click "OK"

Words will now be spell-checked with the dictionary you opened.
------------------------
It's seems that is exactly what I need and APSC can check spelling not only in English but also in other languages!

In my Windows XP I've found ".vtd files" for American, British, Danish, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Unfortunately I haven't found a ".vtd file" for Russian. Does anybody know where I can get it?

NK
======

ICQ: 233779923 ▲ Collapse
 
Samuel Murray
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Good spellchecker should have its own compiler Apr 7, 2004

Nikita Kobrin wrote:
Unfortunately I haven't found a ".vtd file" for Russian. Does anybody know where I can get it?


Sorry if I sound overly negative, but IMHO a good spell-checker will either have support from the company that sells it (so that they can supply you with a dictionary) or it must have its own freely available dictionary compiler (such as Ispell and Aspell has and AFAIK the Spellchecker for Editboxes had).
 
Nikita Kobrin
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Lithuania
Local time: 16:03
Member (2010)
English to Russian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
I don't quite agree with you, Samuel: Apr 7, 2004

Samuel Murray-Smit wrote:

IMHO a good spell-checker will either have support from the company that sells it (so that they can supply you with a dictionary) or it must have its own freely available dictionary compiler (such as Ispell and Aspell has and AFAIK the Spellchecker for Editboxes had).


1) Don't forget that APSC is freeware (or abandonware) and there's no "company that sells it".

2) You yourself wrote some posts above that both Ispell and Aspell are not quite stable. For me unstable software is quite poor software.

3) For me the ideal spell-checker would be not the one that has its own dictionaries (I don't want to overload my system with additional dictionaries) but a tiny utility that can use MS Word dictionaries.

NK
======

ICQ: 233779923
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
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Local time: 15:03
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
And I disagree with you :-) Apr 8, 2004

Nikita Kobrin wrote:
1. APSC is freeware
2. There's no company that sells it.
3. Unstable software is quite poor software.
4. A tiny utility that can use MS Word dictionaries.


1. The fact that a product is freeware does not imply that one cannot expect some product support from the company.
2. The fact that the company that distributed it is no longer doing so but hasn't officially declared their software to be in the public domain, should ring warning bells about the legality of distributing it and also of using it.
3. Unstable software is not necessarily poor. It simply means that the user should have more than just newbie computer experience to use it. When I said the software is unstable, I meant that you can't just download and install it and expect it to work straight-away. The algorithms in Apell is in fact much, much better than most spell-checkers.
4. Are MS Word dictionaries available for download anywhere? Or do you need to purchase MS Word to get them? And what about languages not covered by MS Word? Or what if there are major changes in spelling rules and your MS Word dictionary still uses the old rules (this happened in German and also in Dutch recently)? Basically you're placing the user of the spell-checker at the mercy of Microsoft (a good company, mind you, but a third party nonetheless).
 
Nikita Kobrin
Nikita Kobrin  Identity Verified
Lithuania
Local time: 16:03
Member (2010)
English to Russian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Agree & disagree Apr 8, 2004


1. The fact that a product is freeware does not imply that one cannot expect some product support from the company.


With this I do agree, Samuel.



2. The fact that the company that distributed it is no longer doing so but hasn't officially declared their software to be in the public domain, should ring warning bells about the legality of distributing it and also of using it.


I don't think so. It's better to let people use a good app than just to put it in a dustbin.


3. Unstable software is not necessarily poor. It simply means that the user should have more than just newbie computer experience to use it. When I said the software is unstable, I meant that you can't just download and install it and expect it to work straight-away. The algorithms in Apell is in fact much, much better than most spell-checkers.


I'm not a computer wizard and as an average user I prefer simple to use software which does work straightaway. If it doesn't I can't call it good software.


4. Are MS Word dictionaries available for download anywhere? Or do you need to purchase MS Word to get them? And what about languages not covered by MS Word? Or what if there are major changes in spelling rules and your MS Word dictionary still uses the old rules (this happened in German and also in Dutch recently)? Basically you're placing the user of the spell-checker at the mercy of Microsoft (a good company, mind you, but a third party nonetheless).


Samuel, you are delving deeply into pure theory here while I am speaking about a practical side of the matter: I need a good free spell-checker now and the offering is quite narrow at the moment. I think it's not a secret for you that we can find MS Word on at least 70% (here in Lithuania on about 100%) of translators' workstations all over the world. I'm quite satisfied with the quality of its dictionaries and they cover about 50 most popular world languages.

NK
======

ICQ: 233779923
 
AMPG
AMPG
English
Need your help Nikita Nov 17, 2004

Hi Nikita,

I need your help regarding to Spell Checker.

Can you please send me all the ".vtd" files, which you found in your Windows XP system?

Thanks.

Regards,
Mukesh Gajjar.



xxxNikita Kobri wrote:

And so what?

Samuel Murray-Smit wrote:

Buzzy's site seems to be a warez page for this product which, AFAIK, is unofficially abandonware.


Hi Samuel,

Thank you for enriching my vocabulary with the term "abandonware". I have never heard it before. I've found the following definition of the word (extract):

"Abandonware is computer software which is no longer being sold or supported by the company that made it.

Abandonware's copyright is frequently no longer defended. This can be due to intentional non-enforcement by its owners due to the software's age or obsolescence, but sometimes because the corporate copyright holder went out of business without transferring ownership, leaving no one to defend the copyright."

To some extend we can call APSC abandonware. It is no longer supported by Palware and their website has gone. But as far as I know APSC was always free.

In any case, Samuel, I don't quite understand the idea of your post. What do you suggest? Not to use APSC only because it's abandonware? Just to put it in a dustbin?

And why do you call Buzzy's site a warez page? He didn't crack the app or anything like that, he doesn't even have a download file on his website. All he does is that he gives a discription of the software and a link to where it's possible to download the app.

And I'm thankful to him as well as to the creator of this software. It works fine for me.

BTW, folks, does anybody know any other good free spell checkers? I'm especially interested in those able to spellcheck not only English texts but also texts in other languages (Russian in my case). Let's determine the best freeware in this category.

I can also recommend ieSpell - Spell Checker add-on for Internet Explorer. It's not bad but I prefer APSC. It's less convenient but more functional and stable. Besides that you can use APSC anywhere and ieSpell is only good within Internet Explorer and its clones.

So, my nominee for the Best Free Spell Checker is APSC. What will be yours?

NK
======

ICQ: 233779923

[Edited at 2004-04-05 15:58]
 


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AP Spell Checker 4.0 by PalWare & the Best Free Spell Checker mini-poll







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