[Geoff Kuenning <address@hidden>] Re: undeniable bug in /usr/bin/spell

[Dan Jacobson]

Geoff sent me a message,

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> Subject: 
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> Re: undeniable bug in /usr/bin/spell
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> The problem is that you have been misled by false statements made by
> FSF and whomever made your RPM.
>
> /usr/bin/spell is not part of the ispell package.  As such, I can take
> no responsibility for incorrectness in the script you have, nor for
> the lack of documentation.
>
> The bug you found is indeed undeniable.  Your two-liner with 'sort -u"
> is the correct fix, although technically it's still wrong because it
> doesn't accept the "-b" switch of spell, but it at least does
> approximately the right thing.
>
> > $ which spell|xargs rpm -qif
> > Group       : Text tools                    Source RPM: 
> > ispell-3.1.20-13mdk.src.rpm
> > Ispell is the GNU interactive spelling checker.
>
> The statement in the last line is false.  Given the history of FSF
> with respect to ispell, I have trouble calling it anything other than
> a lie.  Ispell is not "the GNU interactive spelling checker".  I
> permit FSF to distribute it, despite their insistence on being
> difficult and uncooperative.  But it is completely false for them to
> imply, as does the above statement, that the program has any
> connection to GNU or to FSF.
> -- 
>     Geoff Kuenning   address@hidden   http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~geoff/
>
> --- End Message ---

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Bonus conclusion from Dan: "best to have correct frontend and man page
for spell distributed along with the ispell package, that way we
wouldn't worry about each distributor doing a slob job, with bugs
reports still going to GNU."

Yes, indeed, a one liner /usr/bin/spell frontend and a tiny spell
manpage would mean that for 5 minutes of effort, GNU/Linux would have
"spell" included in its vast armada of utilities.

I could CC: this to mandrakesoft, but if Geoff adds the script "at the
source", then there would be no need to fix it in every GNU/Linux
distributon... plus repoting a bug to mandrakesoft takes more than a
CC, so never mind that.
-- 
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