Forums Feature Suggestions SPELLCHECK!

Just imagine the quality of conversation on IRC improving with a spellcheck built in, and turned on by default

I don't think it would really work.
- mIRC is used by people to talk in hundreds of different languages, so making a spellchecker wouldn't be much use to them, having it on by default would be an annoyance for them.
- Talking over the net has it's own slang, acronyms, etc. all of which would be misinterpreted.
- Many people talk about computing related things over IRC, including sending code etc. - all of this would also be misinterpreted.
- For someone who doesn't know english that well, spelling a word poorly and then 'correcting' it incorrectly could result in a sentence that was orignally just poor english becoming completely non-sensical.
- Typo's, which obviously your suggestion is about, aren't that big a deal over IRC. Many people have times when they are chatting to several people at once, perhaps on several different channels at once, typo's are inevitable at the speed that people generally type to keep up, as such most people wouldn't appreciate mIRC slowing them down by telling them they've mispelled a word for the hundredth time when, in the end, it just doesn't matter over IRC.

IRC simply isn't a place where spelling and grammar are important.

Also, English itself has words spelt different ways in different countries. There's probably about 5 or 6 major variations overall.

Then again, a simple spell checker/corrector like the one in MS Word cannot do any harm as the end user chooses their own country's way of spelling the word.

EG: Colour is spelt colour in the Queen's English yet in America and Japan it is more likely to be spelt color. If it was set up so the end user could choose the input and output then I would support that. In the meantime scripting it is quite simple with $replace.

Seems to me i have heard of addons that spell check, altho i've never investigated them. I myself wouldnt use spellcheck on IRC for all the reasons starbuck and watchdog mentioned, as well as my own personal reasons due to a physical disability.

With all the languages/regional spellings involved, i imagine creating a builtin spellchecker for mIRC would be a nightmarish task.

As as side note, one of the things i enjoy about IRC in general is that i can "speak" with ppl from all over the world. We manage to make ourselves understood to each other, even with abbreviations/typos/spelling errors/language barriers/geekspeak/slang. i think worrying about spell checking everything we said would detract from that somewhat, altho i can understand why some users would like it.

But there is a difference, in MS Word it prompts you before making any change, meaning if you type "thats" it won't auto replace it with "that's" it will ask you. Yes for somethings i.e. "teh" it will auto correct, but for the majority it asks. And do you want to be prompted after each message as to whether you want to spellcheck? I know I don't.

In my honest opinion, I've got to say that a spellcheck would provide more hassle than good. To have it bugging me about a mispelled word, etc, would be so annoying. Having someone build it as an addon is much better. mIRC doesn't need to concentrate on a spellchecker that well request an 'ignore/add/change' everytime you type 1337 ;-)

I agree - an addon would be better. There are a few people in the channel I chat in who are notorious for their typos and/or bad spelling. Correcting them is a favourite hobby of mine (I know, I really should get out more!) :tongue:

Don't you loose multiple spaces by using on *:INPUT ?

A spell checker could be used for more than spell checking. I used to use one for adding Foreign accents to words (such as arabic). There are many uses for a text replacer. And mIRC is faster at it than a script. The objection of "I wouldn't use it" doesn't really mean much. Because there are technical advantages to it, and a lot of people would use it.

perhaps, but we are each entitled to our own opinions and to voice them. I think many reasons given are valid points, for and against

This is accomplishable via COM objects and ms word - i won't paste, there's a sample in my com tutorial on mircscripts.org. Its an easy thing to do and utlise the power and existing library of the ms offie suite.

*zoom*