[platform/upstream/aspell.git] / manual / readme.texi

@node Installing
@appendix Installing

Aspell requires gcc 2.95 (or better) as the C++ compiler.  Other C++
compilers should work with some effort.  Other C++ compilers for mostly
POSIX compliant (Unix, Linux, BeOS, Cygwin) systems should work without
any major problems provided that the compile can handle all of the
advanced C++ features Aspell uses.  C++ compilers for non-Unix systems
might work but it will take some work.  Aspell at very least requires a
Unix-like environment (@file{sh}, @file{grep}, @file{sed}, @file{tr},
@dots{}), and Perl in order to build.  Aspell also uses a few POSIX
functions when necessary.

The latest version can always be found at GNU Aspell's home page at
@uref{http://aspell.net}.

@menu
* Generic Install Instructions::  
* HTML Manuals and "make clean"::  
* Curses Notes::                
* Loadable Filter Notes::       
* Upgrading from Aspell 0.50::  
* Upgrading from Aspell .33/Pspell .12::  
* Upgrading from a Pre-0.50 snapshot::  
* WIN32 Notes::                 
@end menu

@node Generic Install Instructions
@appendixsec Generic Install Instructions

@example
./configure && make
@end example

For additional @command{configure} options type @samp{./configure
--help}.  You can control what C++ compiler is used by setting the
environment variable @env{CXX} before running configure and you can
control what flags are passed to the C++ compile via the environment
variable @env{CXXFLAGS}.  Static libraries are disabled by default
since static libraries will not work right due to the mixing of C and
C++.  When a C program links with the static libraries in Aspell it is
likely to crash because Aspell's C++ objects are not getting
initialized correctly.  However, if for some reason you want them, you
can enable them via @option{--enable-static}.

Aspell should then compile without any additional user intervention.
If you run into problems please first check the sections below as that
might solve your problem.

To install the program simply type

@example
make install
@end example

After Aspell is installed at least one dictionary needs to be
installed.  You can find them at @uref{http://aspell.net/}.  The
@command{aspell} program must be in your path in order for the
dictionaries to install correctly.

If you do not have Ispell or the traditional Unix @command{spell} utility
installed on your system then you should also copy the compatibility
scripts @command{ispell} and @command{spell} located in the @file{scripts/}
directory into your binary directory which is usually
@file{/usr/local/bin} so that programs that expect the
@command{ispell} or @command{spell} command will work correctly.

@node HTML Manuals and "make clean"
@appendixsec HTML Manuals and @command{make clean}

The Aspell distribution includes HTML versions of the User and
Developer's manual.  Unfortunately, doing a @command{make clean} will
erase them.  This is due to a limitation of automake which is not
easily fixed.  If makeinfo is installed they can easily be rebuild
with @command{make aspell.html aspell-dev.html}, or you can unpack
them from the tarbar.

@node Curses Notes
@appendixsec Curses Notes

If you are having problems compiling @file{check_funs.cpp} then the
most likely reason is due to incompatibilities with the curses
implementation on your system.  You should first try disabling the
``wide'' curses library by with the @option{--disable-wide-curses}
configure option..  By doing so you will lose support for properly
displaying UTF-8 characters but you may still be able to get the full
screen interface.  If this fails than you can disable curses support
altogether with the @option{--disable-curses} configure option.  By
doing this you will lose the nice full screen interface but hopefully
you will be able to at least get Aspell to compile correctly.

If the curses library is installed in a non-standard location than you
can specify the library and include directory with
@option{--enable-curses=@var{lib}} and
@option{--enable-curses-include=@var{dir}}.

@option{@var{lib}} can either be the complete path of the library---for
example
@example
/usr/local/curses/libcurses.a
@end example
or the name of the library (for example
@file{ncurses}) or a combined location and library in the form
@option{-L@var{libdir} -l@var{lib}} (for example
@option{-L/usr/local/@/ncurses/lib -lncurses}).

@var{dir} is the location of the curses header files (for example
@file{/usr/local/@/ncurses/include}).

@appendixsubsec Unicode Support

In order for Aspell to correctly spell check UTF-8 documents in full
screen mode the "wide" version of the curses library must be
installed.  This is different from the normal version of curses
library, and is normally named @file{libcursesw} (with a @samp{w} at
the end) or @file{libncursesw}.  UTF-8 documents will not display
correctly without the right curses version installed.

In addition your system must also support the @code{mblen} function.
Although this function was defined in the ISO C89 standard (ANSI
X3.159-1989), not all systems have it.

@node Loadable Filter Notes
@appendixsec Loadable Filter Notes

Support for being able to load additional filter modules at run-time
has only been verified to work on Linux platforms.  If you get linker
errors when trying to use a filter, then it is likely that loadable
filter support is not working yet on your platform.  Thus, in order to
get Aspell to work correctly you will need to avoid compiling the
filters as individual modules by using the
@option{--enable-compile-in-filters} when configuring Aspell with
@command{./configure}.

@node Upgrading from Aspell 0.50
@appendixsec Upgrading from Aspell 0.50

The dictionary format has changed so dictionaries will need to be
recompiled.

All data, by default, is now included in @file{@var{libdir}/aspell-0.60} so
that multiple versions of Aspell can more peacefully coexist.  This
included both the dictionaries and the language data files which were
stored in @file{@var{sharedir}/aspell} before Aspell 0.60.

The format of the character data files has changed.  The new character
data files are installed with Aspell so you should not have to worry
about it unless you made a custom one.

The dictionary option @option{strip-accents} has been removed.  For
this reason the old English dictionary (up to 0.51) will no longer
work.  A new English dictionary is now available which avoids using
this option.  In addition the @option{ignore-accents} option is
currently unimplemented.

The flag @option{-l} is now a shortcut for @option{--lang}, instead of
@option{--list} as it was with Aspell 0.50.

@anchor{Binary Compatibility}
@appendixsubsec Binary Compatibility

The Aspell 0.60 library is binary compatible with the Aspell 0.50
library.  For this reason I chose @emph{not} to increment the major
version number (so-name) of the shared library by default which means
programs that were compiled for Aspell 0.50 will also work for Aspell
0.60.  However, this means that having both Aspell 0.50 and Aspell 0.60
installed at the same time can be pragmatic.  If you wish to allow both
Aspell 0.50 and 0.60 to be installed at the same time then you can use
the configure option @option{--incremented-soname} which will increment
so-name.  You should only use this option if you know what you are
doing.  It is up to you to somehow ensure that both the Aspell 0.50 and
0.60 executables can coexist.

If after incrementing the so-name you wish to allow programs compiled
for Aspell 0.50 to use Aspell 0.60 instead (thus implying that Aspell
0.50 is not installed) then you can use a special compatibility library
which can be found in the @file{lib5} directory.  This directory will
not be entered when building or installing Aspell so you must manually
build and install this library.  You should build it after the rest of
Aspell is built.  The order in which this library is installed, with
relation to the rest of Aspell, is also important.  If it is installed
@emph{after} the rest of Aspell then new programs will link to the old
library (which will work for Aspell 0.50 or 0.60) when built, if
installed @emph{before}, new programs will link with the new library
(Aspell 0.60 only).

@node Upgrading from Aspell .33/Pspell .12
@appendixsec Upgrading from Aspell .33/Pspell .12

Aspell has undergone an extremely large number of changes since the
previous Aspell/Pspell release.  For one thing Pspell has been merged
with Aspell so there in no longer two separate libraries you have to
worry about.

Because of the massive changes between Aspell/Pspell and Aspell 0.50
you may want to clean out the old files before installing the the new
Aspell.  To do so do a @samp{make uninstall} in the original Aspell
and Pspell source directories.

The way dictionaries are handled has also changed.  This includes a
change in the naming conventions of both language names and
dictionaries.  Due to the language name change, your old personal
dictionaries will not be recognized.  However, you can import the old
dictionaries by running the @command{aspell-import} script.  This also
means that dictionaries designed to work with older versions of Aspell
are not likely to function correctly.  Fortunately new dictionary
packages are available for most languages.  You can find them off of
the Aspell home page at @uref{http://aspell.net}.

The Pspell ABI is now part of Aspell except that the name of
everything has changed due to the renaming of Pspell to Aspell.  In
particular please note the following name changes:

@example
pspell -> aspell
manager -> speller
emulation -> enumeration
master_word_list -> main_word_list
@end example

Please also note that the name of the @option{language-tag} option has
changed to @option{lang}.  However, for backward compatibility the
@option{language-tag} option will still work.

However, you should also be able to build applications that require
Pspell with the new Aspell as a backward compatibility header file is
provided.

Due to a change in the way dictionaries are handled, scanning for
@file{.pwli} files in order to find out which dictionaries are
available will no longer work.  This means that programs that relied
on this technique may have problems finding dictionaries.
Fortunately, GNU Aspell now provided a uniform way to list all
installed dictionaries via the c API.  See the file
@file{list-dicts.c} in the @file{examples/} directory for an example
of how to do this.  Unfortunately there isn't any simple way to find
out which dictionaries are installed which will work with both the old
Aspell/Pspell and the new GNU Aspell.

@node Upgrading from a Pre-0.50 snapshot
@appendixsec Upgrading from a Pre-0.50 snapshot

At the last minute I decided to merge the @file{speller-util} program
into the main @file{aspell} program.  You may wish to remove that
@file{speller-util} program to avoid confusion.  This also means that
dictionaries designed to work with the snapshot will no longer work
with the official release.

@node WIN32 Notes
@appendixsec WIN32 Notes

@appendixsubsec Getting the WIN32 version

The latest version of the native Aspell/WIN32 port, including
binaries, can be found at @uref{http://aspell.net/win32}.  This page
has, unfortunately, not been updated for Aspell 0.60.  If you are
interested in updated the native port please let me know.

@appendixsubsec Building the WIN32 version

There are two basically different ways of building Aspell using GCC
for WIN32: You can either use the Cygwin compiler, which will produce
binaries that depend on the POSIX layer in @file{cygwin1.dll}.  The
other way is using MinGW GCC, those binaries use the native C runtime
from Microsoft (MSVCRT.DLL).  

@c FIXME: Is the following true?
@c If you intend to use or link against the
@c Aspell libraries using a native WIN32 compiler (e.g.  MS Visual C++),
@c you will need the MinGW built ones to avoid problems caused by the
@c different runtime libraries.

@appendixsubsubsec Building Aspell using Cygwin

This works exactly like on other POSIX
compatible systems using the @samp{./configure && make && make install}
cycle.  Some versions of Cygwin GCC will fail to link, this is caused
by an incorrect @file{libstdc++.la} in the @file{/lib} directory.
After removing or renaming this file, the build progress should work
(GCC-2.95 and GCC-3.x should work).

@appendixsubsubsec Building Aspell using MinGW

There are several different ways to build Aspell using MinGW.  The
easiest way is to use a Cygwin compiler but instruct it to build a
native binary rather than a Cygwin one.  To do this configure with:

@example
./configure CFLAGS='-O2 -mno-cygwin' CXXFLAGS='-O2 -mno-cygwin'
@end example

You may also want to add the option
@option{--enable-win32-relocatable} to use more windows friendly
directories.  @xref{Win32-Directories}.  In this case configure with:

@smallexample
./configure CFLAGS='-O2 -mno-cygwin' CXXFLAGS='-O2 -mno-cygwin' --enable-win32-relocatable
@end smallexample

It should also be possible to build Aspell using the MSYS environment.
But this has not been very well tested.  If building with MSYS
@emph{do not} add @samp{CFLAGS @dots{}} to configure.

@appendixsubsubsec Building Aspell without using Cygwin or MSYS 

It is also possible to build Aspell without Cygwin of MinGW by using
the files in the @file{win32/} subdirectory.  However, these files
have not been updated to work with Aspell 0.60.  Thus the following
instructions will not work without some effort.  If you do get Aspell
to compile this way please send me the updated files so that I can
include them with the next release.

To compile Aspell with the MinGW
compiler, you will need at least GCC-3.2 (as shipped with MinGW-2.0.3)
and some GNU tools like @command{rm} and @command{cp}.  The origin of
those tools doesn't matter, it has shown to work with any tools from
MinGW/MSys, Cygwin or Linux.  To build Aspell, move into the
@file{win32} subdirectory and type @samp{make}.  You can enable some
additional build options by either commenting out the definitions at
the head of the Makefile or passing those values as environment
variables or at the @command{make} command line.  Following options
are supported:

@table @option
@item DEBUGVERSION
If set to "1", the binaries will include debugging information
(resulting in a much bigger size).

@item CURSESDIR
Enter the path to the pdcurses library here, in order to get a nicer
console interface (see below).

@item MSVCLIB
Enter the filename of MS @file{lib.exe} here, if you want to build
libraries that can be imported from MS Visual C++.

@item WIN32_RELOCATABLE
If set to "1", Aspell will detect the prefix from the path where the
DLL resides (see below for further details).

@item TARGET
Sets a prefix to be used for cross compilation (e.g.
@file{/usr/local/bin/@/i586-mingw32msvc-} to cross compile from Linux).
@end table

There are also a MinGW compilers available for Cygwin and Linux, both
versions are able to compile Aspell using the prebuilt
@file{Makefile}.  While the Cygwin port automatically detects the
correct compiler, the Linux version depends on setting the
@env{TARGET} variable in the @file{Makefile} (or environment) to the
correct compiler prefix.

Other compilers may work.  There is a patch for MS Visual C++ 6.0
available at @uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/aspell}, but it needs a lot
of changes to the Aspell sources.  It has also been reported that the
Intel C++ compiler can be used for compilation.

@appendixsubsec (PD)Curses

In order to get the nice full screen interface when spell checking
files, a curses implementation that does not require Cygwin is
required.  The PDCurses (@uref{http://pdcurses.sourceforge.net})
implementation is known to work, other implementations may work
however they have not been tested.  See the previous section for
information on specifying the location of the curses library and
include file.

Curses notes:

@itemize @bullet

@item
PDcurses built with MinGW needs to be compiled with
@option{-DPDC_STATIC_BUILD} to avoid duplicate declaration of
@file{DllMain} when compiling @file{aspell.exe}.

@item
The curses enabled version can cause trouble in some shells (MSys
@command{rxvt}, @command{emacs}) and will produce errors like
@samp{initscr() LINES=1 COLS=1: too small}.  Use a non-curses version
for those purposes.
@end itemize

@anchor{Win32-Directories}
@appendixsubsec Directories

If Aspell is configured with @option{--enable-win32-relocatable} or
compiled with @option{WIN32_RELOCATABLE=1} when using a Makefile, it
can be run from any directory: it will set @option{@var{prefix}}
according to its install location (assuming it resides in
@file{@var{prefix}\\bin}).  Your personal wordlists will be saved in
the @file{@var{prefix}} directory with their names changed from
@file{.aspell.@var{lang}.*} to @file{@var{lang}.*} (you can override
the path by setting the @env{HOME} environment variable).

@appendixsubsec Installer

The installer registers the DLLs as shared libraries, you should
increase the reference counter to avoid the libraries being
uninstalled if your application still depends on them (and decrease it
again when uninstalling your program).  The reference counters are
located under:
@example
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SharedDLLs
@end example

The install location and version numbers are stored under

@example
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Aspell
@end example

@appendixsubsec WIN32 consoles

The console uses a different encoding than GUI applications, changing
this to to a Windows encoding (e.g.  1252) is not supported on
Win9x/Me.  On WinNT (and later) those codepages can be set by first
changing the console font to @samp{lucida console}, then changing the
codepage using @samp{chcp 1252}.

Some alternative shells (e.g. MSys' @command{rxvt} or Cygwin's
@command{bash}) do a codepage conversion (if correctly set up), so
running Aspell inside those shells might be a workaround for Win9x.