1 11/18/77  - Dictionary information
  2 
  3 Dictionaries are used to perform the word processing tasks of hyphenation and
  4 spelling error detection. A brief description of these applications and related
  5 information is provided below.
  6 
  7 
  8 Hyphenation: The runoff and compose commands, both used to format text, can
  9 optionally perform hyphenation. Each word requiring hyphenation is looked up in
 10 a sequence of dictionaries defined by the "dict" search list.
 11 The dictionaries are searched in order and the word is hyphenated as specified
 12 in the first dictionary in which the word is found. If the word cannot be found
 13 in any of the dictionaries, then it is not hyphenated.
 14 
 15 
 16 Spelling error detection: The technique used for spelling error detection
 17 consists of the following three steps:
 18   1. Use the create_wordlist command to make an alphabetized list of all unique
 19 words contained in a document. This list is called a "wordlist".
 20   2. Use the trim_wordlist command to remove from the wordlist all correctly
 21 spelled words, i.e., all words that can be found in a set of dictionaries.
 22 This operation is called "trimming".
 23   3. Use the print_wordlist command to print the remaining words in the
 24 wordlist. Check these words for spelling errors.
 25   The words printed in step 3 are those words contained in a document that
 26 could not be found in a dictionary. These words are likely to be misspelled.
 27 Normally, the number of words that will need to be checked is exceedingly small
 28 when compared to the original document.
 29   The dictionary search used by the trimming operation in step 2 is the same
 30 type of search used for hyphenation. By default, the "dict" search list is
 31 used. However, the trim_wordlist command allows the user to specify the
 32 dictionaries explicitly.
 33 
 34 
 35 Spelling error correction: When misspelled words are detected as described
 36 above, they can be easily corrected by use of the revise_words command.
 37 This command revises all instances of one or more misspellings within a
 38 document. Because it deals specifically with words, it can easily make
 39 revisions that are difficult or tedious to perform with an ordinary text
 40 editor.
 41   For many spelling errors, the proper correction can be determined merely by
 42 examining the misspelling. In some cases, however, it is necessary to examine
 43 the context of the misspelled word before making a correction.
 44 The locate_words command is provided for this purpose. It can locate and print
 45 in context all instances of a given word (misspelling) within a document.
 46 
 47 
 48 Standard dictionary: A standard dictionary is provided for use in hyphenation
 49 and spelling error detection. At present, a preliminary version of the standard
 50 dictionary is available. This version is not complete. It contains
 51 approximately 29,000 words. Hyphenation points are specified for most, but not
 52 all, hyphenatable words. An expanded version of the standard dictionary will be
 53 made available in the future.
 54   The pathname of the standard dictionary is >unb>standard.dict.
 55 By default, the dict search list contains only this pathname.
 56 
 57 
 58 User dictionaries: Commands are provided that enable users to create, modify,
 59 and examine dictionaries. These commands include add_dict_words,
 60 count_dict_words, delete_dict_words, and list_dict_words. Another command,
 61 find_dict_words, can be used to find words in the dictionaries defined by the
 62 "dict" search list. This enables the user to easily determine what effect
 63 hyphenation or trimming will have for any given word.
 64   User dictionaries can be added to the "dict" search list to augment or
 65 replace the standard dictionary. Normally, user dictionaries should precede the
 66 standard dictionary in the search list. This allows a user to specify a
 67 different hyphenation for a word. Also, it allows a user to specify the
 68 "no-trim" attribute for a word.
 69   The no-trim attribute can be specified at the time a word is added to a
 70 dictionary and indicates that the associated word should not be trimmed by the
 71 trim_wordlist command. This prevents a word from being trimmed even though it
 72 may appear in a subsequent dictionary in the search list. This feature is of
 73 use when a standard dictionary word has some special significance in a
 74 particular document. In this case, a user may want to see the word in a
 75 wordlist rather than have it trimmed.
 76 
 77 
 78 Summary of commands: The commands mentioned above are listed below in groups
 79 according to function. Separate help files exist for each of the commands.
 80 
 81 
 82 Hyphenation:
 83     compose
 84     runoff
 85 
 86 
 87 Spelling error detection:
 88     create_wordlist
 89     print_wordlist
 90     trim_wordlist
 91 
 92 
 93 Spelling error correction:
 94     locate_words
 95     revise_words
 96 
 97 
 98 Dictionary maintenance:
 99     add_dict_words
100     count_dict_words
101     delete_dict_words
102     find_dict_words
103     list_dict_words