[scribus] Spellchecker

[Craig Bradney]

>> Building Scribus is relatively easy on linux and OSX. Windows is
>>more complicated.
> 
> OK -  I have an fc14 box with standard compilers and Code::Blocks. All rather old now, but it did
> serve for writing a couple of very noddy little server processes. I've been using Unix / Linux a
> long time, but don't assume I knew or remember all that much.
> 
> Would that do for building Scribus ?

If its a later revision of most of the popular distros it should be fine.



> 
>>> How much Qt do you need to know ?  (Don't know any at the moment !
>>>Hoping that hunspell will provide
>>> most of the low level user interface, and that Scribus already has the UI to invoke a spelling
>>> check.)
>>
>> Qt is pretty easy
> 
> Good, because there seemed to be a vast amount of it !

Its big but the docs are excellent.

> 
>>> Did somebody say that someone had started but not finished a new spellchecker plugin ?  If so, would
>>> it make more sense to work with them, or take theirs over if they've made a useful start but don't
>>> have time to finish it ?
>>
>> The old aspell exception (ie C++ exception) based plugin is a nightmare
>>to read.. better to start
>> from scratch with some ideas taken.
> 
> :)
> 
> OK. So why use the C++ exception mechanism in a spell checker ?

We didn't. The plugin was written by someone else - we don't use exceptions really at all as Qt
never supported them, and we found we don't need them. It may be in part of the way aspell works.

> 
>>> (Don't take this as a commitment by the way, but let's sort out what's
>>>involved, then I'll find out
>>> if I've got an appropriate machine to build it on, and decide if I've
>>>got time to do it. No point in
>>> rushing in headlong... That wouldn't help any of us.)
>>
>> Happy to help you out if you get serious on it.
> 
> Still curious.  If this box will build it I'll try and get the tools together and compile the latest
> 1.5.x.
> 
> If this box won't, I can put the latest fc (is it still 14 ?) onto another box.  That box is old and
> slow, but should still be able to hack it I think.

Slow will just mean slow compiles but as long as the dependencies are all there it should be fine.

Craig