1 .TH SPELL 1
2 .SH NAME
3 spell, sprog \- find spelling errors
4 .SH SYNOPSIS
5 .B spell
6 [
7 .I options
8 ]
9 \&...
10 [
11 .I file
12 ]
13 \&...
14 .PP
15 .B sprog
16 [
17 .I options
18 ]
19 [
20 .B -f
21 .I file
22 ]
23 .SH DESCRIPTION
24 .I Spell
25 looks up words from the named
26 .I files
27 (standard input default)
28 in a spelling list and places
29 possible misspellings\(emwords 
30 not sanctioned there\(emon the standard output.
31 .PP
32 .I Spell
33 ignores constructs of
34 .IR troff (1)
35 and its standard preprocessors.
36 It understands these options:
37 .TP
38 .B -b
39 Check British spelling.
40 .TP
41 .B -v
42 Print all words not literally in the spelling list, with
43 derivations.
44 .TP
45 .B -x
46 Print, marked with
47 .LR = ,
48 every stem as it is looked up in the spelling list,
49 along with its affix classes.
50 .PP
51 As a matter of policy, 
52 .I spell
53 does not admit multiple spellings of the same word.
54 Variants that follow general rules are preferred
55 over those that don't, even when the unruly spelling is
56 more common.
57 Thus, in American usage, `modelled', `sizeable', and `judgment' are
58 rejected in favor of `modeled', `sizable', and `judgement'.
59 Agglutinated variants are shunned: `crewmember' and `backyard'
60 cede to `crew member' and  `back yard' (noun) or `back-yard' 
61 (adjective).
62 .SH FILES
63 .TF /sys/lib/brspell
64 .TP
65 .B /sys/lib/amspell
66 American spelling list
67 .TP
68 .B /sys/lib/brspell
69 British spelling list
70 .TP
71 .B /bin/aux/sprog
72 The actual spelling checker.
73 It expects one word per line on standard input,
74 and takes the same arguments as
75 .IR spell .
76 .SH SOURCE
77 .TF /sys/src/cmd/spell
78 .TP
79 .B /rc/bin/spell
80 the script
81 .TP
82 .B /sys/src/cmd/spell
83 source for
84 .I sprog
85 .SH SEE ALSO
86 .IR deroff (1)
87 .SH BUGS
88 The heuristics of
89 .IR deroff (1)
90 used to excise formatting information are imperfect.
91 .br
92 The spelling list's coverage is uneven;
93 in particular biology, medicine, and chemistry, and
94 perforce proper names,
95 not to mention languages other than English,
96 are covered very lightly.