Spelling Checkers for the Atari

Eight years ago the thought of processing words on a computer at home was far from a reality. Dedicated word processors such as the IBM Magnetic Tape Selectric Typewriter cost in excess of $10,000 and were out of reach not only of home users of early microcomputers but most small businesses, as well. Now there are close to a dozen different word processors for the Atari computer.

Using a word processor is clearly more productive than typing, but there is still the chore of proofreading. Wouldn't it be great if there was some way that your computer could proofread your document? Rejoice -- because there are currently three spelling checkers for the Atari computer, covering a wide range of features.

Until a couple of years ago, my definition of a "spelling checker" was Miss Snyder, my seventh grade English teacher. She was superb at checking the spelling on my compositions. I could never get away with anything. Times have changed. In today's computer jargon, a spelling checker is a program that proofreads a text file by comparing the words with a dictionary. All words that do not have a match are flagged as possible spelling errors. The dictionary is a list of words contained in a separate file. Some checking programs have the capability for the user to add further dictionaries that might contain often used -- but not standard -- words, such as names or technical terms.

Regardless of the spelling program, none can do all that Miss Snyder did. A spelling program cannot check for grammatical errors, such as the difference between words like "their" and "there," "way" and "weigh" or "to," "two" and "to." Also, contractions, plurals, hyphenated words, proper nouns and possessives cannot be checked. As a result, these spelling aids are limited to checking only spelling, and require the user to understand rules of grammar (and proofread the document, anyway).

There are currently three spelling checking programs for the Atari computer. Spell Perfect by LJK will only check files created by LJK's Letter Perfect word processor. Spell Wizard by Datasoft will check any text files in standard Atari DOS format. This includes files created by Text Wizard (Datasoft) and AtariWriter (Atari). Atspeller (APX) will also check standard Atari DOS text files. There is also a new version of Atspeller that works directly with Atari's AtariWriter word processor.

It should be noted that LJK does have an inexpensive utility program that will translate an Atari DOS file into an LJK DOS file, and vice versa. Using this program, you could have Spell Perfect proof Atari files and Atspeller or Spell Wizard proof LJK files. I have used this very simple procedure to convert my LJK files into Atari DOS format files, in order to use Spell Wizard for checking.

How do they work?

All three programs work essentially the same way. An initial menu is presented when the program is first run. You typically have the choice of proofreading a document, managing your dictionaries or specifying your system configuration. At programs also count the number of words in your document -- which is a handy feature. Let's take a took at the specific features of each package.

Atspeller
by Atari Program Exchange (APX)

The Atspeller package consists of two disks: a program disk and a dictionary disk containing over 30,000 words. When the program is run, you are first asked if you have a "personal" dictionary file. This file is one that you would create from running Atspeller and saving all of the scientific, technical and jargon words to a separate dictionary file.

If you do have a personal dictionary, that is read first. Otherwise, the master dictionary disk is inserted into the drive, and you can choose: output to screen or printer, correction, disk directory/file delete/file rename, search dictionary, return to Atari DOS or sort personal dictionary. Regardless of your choice, the program always asks for confirmation of that choice, a useful feature. Next, you insert your document disk and enter the filename to be checked. After the program reads your document file, you must insert the dictionary disk into your drive. The program will check your text by reading the dictionary file and comparing the words. Each time a word does not have a match in the dictionary, you have the choice of correcting the word, searching the dictionary for correct spelling or accepting the current spelling.

When your entire text has been scanned, you have a new, corrected text file. You can then add the words to your personal dictionary file (or create this file, if you don't yet have one). Of the 30,000 words in the master dictionary, 10,000 have come from the American Heritage Dictionary Word Frequency Book. These words have been found to be the most commonly used words in the English language. Before looking up a word in the dictionary file, the program first checks to see if the word falls into one of several "nuisance" categories. These special cases consist of single-letter words and words containing a number. Words in these categories are assumed to be correct.

If words end in the possessive case (with 's), the ending is removed before the word is checked. For this reason, it is not necessary to add possessive words to your personal dictionary file. If not for these special cases, many words would be flagged as incorrect, and the checking time would be longer.

Atspeller for the AtariWriter

Atspeller for the AtariWriter is similar to Atspeller, except that the spelling checking function can be used from within the AtariWriter word processor. There is a simple initialization procedure in which the Atspeller program becomes the AUTORUN.SYS file, so that it is executed immediately upon turning on the computer. The Atspeller program then presents its own menu, which includes the AtariWriter menu.

If you use AtariWriter and a printer driver, there are instructions in the manual for combining the printer driver and the Atspeller into one autorun file. The manuals for both Atspeller and Atspeller for AtariWriter are brief and written clearly. The major difference is that the Atspeller manual is typeset and is, therefore, a little easier to read.

Spell Perfect
by LJK

The package comes on two double-sided disks. This includes a 40/80-column program disk and a single/double density dictionary disk. The documentation is in the form of a tutorial. Although it is better than previous LJK manuals, it is still rather wordy and difficult to follow at times. One problem is that instruc tions for both one- and two-drive systems are intermixed throughout the text. A better method would have been to have one section for single-drive systems and another for two-drive systems.

The program is menu-driven and has provisions for backing up both the program disk and the dictionary disk. I appreciate the ability for backup, but the implementation is awkward with a two-drive system. In the case of the program disk, the original is placed in drive one, and the backup is written,to drive two. Backing up the dictionary is just the reverse, with the original in drive two and the copy in drive one. A consistent method for making backups would be less confusing.

To use the program, you choose "proof a document" from the main menu and enter the name of your previously saved text file. The text file and dictionary file are then loaded. As it is being scanned, the text is shown at the bottom of the screen, and unmatching words are highlighted in inverse video. With each highlighted word, you have the option to "ignore," "change" or "match." "Ignore" skips the word and goes on to the next one. "Change" allows you to fix the spelling of the word directly. "Match" allows you to search the dictionary for similarly spelled words. Some of the words that the program thinks are similar are actually not very similar, but if it is in the dictionary the word will be found. A particularly useful feature is that, if a match is found, you only need to enter its number. This avoids possible keying errors and saves time.

One aspect of the program that I did not like is that words of three letters or less are simply not checked. I can understand that this may have been done to increase the speed of checking, but in my case this makes the program less usable. This is because I am a fast typist who uses only four fingers. I make a lot of letter-reversal mistakes, and this happens most often with short words. Proofreading the document for short words and typographical errors is still a must.

Another problem with the program is that you cannot add the corrected words to a separate dictionary. If you want the "misspelled" words to be included in a dictionary for proofing your next document, you must add them typing them in by hand, using LJK's word processor, Letter Perfect. The only solution to this is to add your entire document file to a dictionary. This is time-consuming and often results in adding more words than you want.

The final irksome part of Spell Perfect is that more than one user-generated dictionary cannot reside on the same disk. A separate disk is required for each. Overall, Spell Perfect is an easy-to-use, moderately powerful spelling checking program.

Spell Wizard
by Datasoft

Spell Wizard comes on two disks. One disk contains the program, and the other holds a dictionary of about 33,000 words. After loading the main program, you have the option of proofing a document, printing a dictionary, searching a dictionary or exiting the program. Each of these choices results in additional questions being asked of you. Although this adds a little time to the overall operation of the program, it is done in the interest of safety and is worthwhile. You cannot destroy a document file, and the program only does what you want it to.

If you choose the proof option from the main menu, you will be prompted to insert your text disk in the appropriate drive. A list of all of the filenames on that disk is displayed on the screen, and you are asked to select one. Then your file is loaded, words are compared to the dictionary and the number of words not recognized -- plus total words in the file -- are shown. Once all of this counting and checking is performed, you are ready to check the spelling in your document.

In the middle of the screen are three options: continue scanning (C), make correction (M) and search (S). As the program scans through your file, the text is scrolled through a horizontal window at the bottom of the screen. Whenever a word is not recognized, the word is highlighted, and the scrolling stops. If the word is spelled correctly, just press C, and the scanning continues. If you are unsure of the correct spelling, you can press S for the search function to find the word in the dictionary.

A very useful feature of Spell Wizard is its ability to use wild cards as part of the search criteria. For example, let's assume you did not know how many m's or t's there are in the word "committee." You do know that the word begins with com, so you could enter "com*" (the * is the wild card indicator). All the words in the dictionary that begin with com will be displayed on the screen. They scroll from bottom to top, and the space bar can be used to pause the display for a longer look.

This process of scanning, making corrections and searching continues until the program reaches the end of your document. At that point, you have several options. You can save the flagged words to a separate dictionary or combine them with an existing one. If you decide to use an existing dictionary, the words are inserted into the file alphabetically, and duplicates are not entered.

The first few times you use Spell Wizard, the flagged words will consist of technical terms, proper nouns and other words that are familiar to you but not to the dictionary. By saving these words in a separate dictionary and using that dictionary each time you use the program, fewer words will be flagged, and the speed of the checking process will be dramatically increased. When you save the words, you have the choice of either performing the save en masse or approving each entry. This is just another fine touch to this useful program.

Finally, when the checking is finished and you have saved the flagged words for your dictionary, you may save the corrected document. Either the original filename may be used, or you can supply a new name.

Spell Wizard is an easy-to-use program that has enough features to satisfy both the casual and the not-so-casual home writer.

Before I talk about the relative performance of each of these spelling checking programs, allow me a brief diversion. I have recently begun using a CP/M system, Wordstar and Spellstar (Micropro). When checking my text documents with Spellstar, the entire process seems to be quicker. This is due primarily to the program's ability to read dozens of words from the dictionary file each second, rather than the handful of words Atari programs are capable of managing.

Dictionary reading speed is only half of the criteria for judging a program of this type. Ease of use is the other criterion. The Atari spelling checking programs are much easier to work with than Spellstar. It is important to realize that there are tradeoffs with any program, and the choice finally comes down to deciding which program best suits your particular needs.

Table 1 lists the various features of each of the spelling checking programs. As can be seen, Spell Perfect is the fastest (597 words per minute) at checking my sample text file containing 1569 words. Since LJK's program ignores words of three letters or less, the word count was only 1233. Atspeller was the slowest, at only 177 words per minute. This is partly the result of the program's reading both the dictionary and text files alternately, and displaying the mismatches in reverse video on the screen.

The text file I used for the benchmark is representative of what I typically write, and I have only used the main dictionary for checking. Creating a user dictionary will speed up the checking process at the expense of lengthening the dictionary loading time. Obviously, more or less unknown words will affect the performance of the program.

If only one disk drive is used with any of these programs, some disk swapping must occur. This is especially true when you decide to use the master dictionary to took up the spelling of a particular word. I rarely use this dictionary look-up feature. Instead, I keep a pocket Webster's dictionary close at hand -- I find it faster and easier to use.

All of the programs described in this article are useful for checking your documents for spelling and typographical errors. As long as you keep in mind the inherent limitations of this type of program, any one will probably meet your casual writing needs.

Table 1

	Atspeller	Spell Perfect	Spell Wizard
Price	$39.95	$79.95	$49.95
Requires (RAM)	48K	32K	32K
Features:
Supports 2 drives	yes	yes	yes
Add corrections to:
Master dictionary	no	yes	yes
User dictionary	yes	no	yes
Dictionary size	30K	30K	33K
Max. number user dictionaries	1	1/disk	limited to disk size
Output to:
Screen	yes	yes	yes
Printer	yes	no	yes
Create new file	no	yes	yes
Re-write existing file	yes	yes	yes
Search dictionary	yes	yes	yes
Word proc. access	yes	yes	yes
Ignores types of words	no	yes, less than 4 letters	no
Backup prog. poss.	yes	yes	no
Performance:
Total words in sample text file	1591	1233	1569
Time to: (seconds)
Load program	36	10	34
Read file		29	24
Read dictionary	540	95	143
Total time	540	124	167
Words/minute	177	597	563

Archiver's Note: The "Total time" figure for Atspeller appears as it did in the original article. It should probably read "576."