Provided by: hspell_1.2-2_amd64 
NAME
hspell - Hebrew spellchecker (C API)
SYNOPSIS
#include <hspell.h>
int hspell_init(struct dict_radix **dictp, int flags);
void hspell_uninit(struct dict_radix *dictp);
int hspell_check_word(struct dict_radix *dict, const char *word, int *preflen);
void hspell_trycorrect(struct dict_radix *dict, const char *word, struct corlist *cl);
int corlist_init(struct corlist *cl);
int corlist_free(struct corlist *cl);
int corlist_n(struct corlist *cl);
char *corlist_str(struct corlist *cl, int i);
unsigned int hspell_is_canonic_gimatria(const char *word);
typedef int hspell_word_split_callback_func(const char *word, const char *baseword, int
preflen, int prefspec);
int hspell_enum_splits(struct dict_radix *dict, const char *word,
hspell_word_split_callback_func *enumf);
void hspell_set_dictionary_path(const char *path);
const char *hspell_get_dictionary_path(void);
DESCRIPTION
This manual describes the C API of the Hspell Hebrew spellchecker. Please refer to
hspell(1) for a description of the Hspell project, its spelling standard, and how it
works.
The hspell_init() function must be called first to initialize the Hspell library. It sets
up some global structures (see CAVEATS section) and then reads the necessary dictionary
files (whose places are fixed when the library is built). The 'dictp' parameter is a
pointer to a struct dict_radix* object, which is modified to point to a newly allocated
dictionary. A typical hspell_init() call therefore looks like
struct dict_radix *dict;
hspell_init(&dict, flags);
Note that the (struct dict_radix*) type is an opaque pointer - the library user has no
access to the separate fields in this structure.
The 'flags' parameter can contain a bitwise or'ing of several flags that modify Hspell's
default behavior; Turning on HSPELL_OPT_HE_SHEELA allows Hspell to recognize the
interrogative He prefix (he ha-she'ela). HSPELL_OPT_DEFAULT is a synonym for turning on no
special flag, i.e., it evaluates to 0.
hspell_init() returns 0 on success, or negative numbers on errors. Currently, the only
error is -1, meaning the dictionary files could not be read.
The hspell_uninit() function undoes the effects of hspell_init(), freeing any memory that
was allocated during initialization.
The hspell_check_word() function checks whether a certain word is a correct Hebrew word
(possibly with prefix particles attached in a syntacticly-correct manner). 1 is returned
if the word is correct, or 0 if it is incorrect.
The 'word' parameter should be a single Hebrew word, in the iso8859-8 encoding, possibly
containing the ASCII quote or double-quote characters (signifying the geresh and gershayim
used in Hebrew for abbreviations, acronyms, and a few foreign sounds). If the calling
programs works with other encodings, it must convert the word to iso8859-8 first. In
particular cp1255 (the MS-Windows Hebrew encoding) extensions to iso8859-8 like niqqud
characters, geresh or gershayim, are currently not recognized and must be removed from the
word prior to calling hspell_check_word().
Into the 'preflen' parameter, the function writes back the number of characters it
recognized as a prefix particle - the rest of the 'word' is a stand-alone word. Because
Hebrew words typically can be read in several different ways, this feature (of getting
just one prefix from one possible reading) is usually not very useful, and it is likely to
be removed in a future version.
The hspell_enum_splits() function provides a way to get all possible splitting of the
given 'word' into an optional prefix particle and a stand-alone word. For each possible
(and legal, as some words cannot accept certain prefixes) split, a user-defined callback
function is called. This callback function is given the whole word, the length of the
prefix, the stand-alone word, and a bitfield which describes what types of words this
prefix can get. Note that in some cases, a word beginning with the letter waw gets this
waw doubled before a prefix, so sometimes strlen(word)!=strlen(baseword)+preflen.
The hspell_trycorrect() tries to find a list of possible corrections for an incorrect
word. Because in Hebrew the word density is high (a random string of letters, especially
if short, has a high probability of being a correct word), this function attempts to try
corrections based on the assumption of a spelling error (replacement of letters that sound
alike, missing or spurious immot qri'a), not typo (slipped finger on the keyboard, etc.) -
see also CAVEATS.
hspell_trycorrect() returns the correction list into a structure of type struct corlist.
This structure must be first allocated with a call to corlist_init() and subsequently
freed with corlist_free(). The corlist_n() macro returns the number of words held in an
allocated corlist, and corlist_str() returns the i'th word. Accordingly, here is an
example usage of hspell_trycorrect():
struct corlist cl;
printf ("Found misspelled word %s. Possible corrections:\n", w);
corlist_init (&cl);
hspell_trycorrect (dict, w, &cl);
for (i=0; i<corlist_n(&cl); i++) {
printf ("%s\n", corlist_str(&cl, i));
}
The hspell_is_canonic_gimatria() function checks whether the given word is a canonic
gimatria - i.e., the proper way to write in gimatria the number it represents. The caller
might want to accept canonic gimatria as proper Hebrew words, even if hspell_check_word()
previously reported such word to be a non-existent word. hspell_is_canonic_gimatria()
returns the number represented as gimatria in 'word' if it is indeed proper gimatria (in
canonic form), or 0 otherwise.
hspell_init() normally reads the dictionary files from a path compiled into the library.
This makes sense when the library's code and the dictionaries are distributed together,
but in some scenarios the library user might want to use the Hspell dictionaries that are
already present on the system in an arbitrary path. The function
hspell_set_dictionary_path() can be used to set this path, and should be used before
calling hspell_init(). The given path is that of the word list, and other input files
have that path with an appended prefix. hspell_get_dictionary_path() can be used to find
the current path. On many installations, this defaults to
"/usr/local/share/hspell/hebrew.wgz".
LINKING
On most systems, the Hspell library is compiled to use the Zlib library for reading the
compressed dictionaries. Therefore, a program linking with the Hspell library must also be
linked with the Zlib library (usually, by adding "-lz" to the compilation line).
Programs that use autoconf to search for the Hspell library, should remember to tell
AC_CHECK_LIB to also link with the -lz library when checking for -lhspell.
CAVEATS
While the API described here has been stable for years, it may change in the future. Users
are encouraged to compare the values of the integer macros HSPELL_VERSION_MAJOR and
HSPELL_VERSION_MINOR to those expected by the writer of the program. A third macro,
HSPELL_VERSION_EXTRA contains a string which can describe subrelease modifications (e.g.,
beta versions).
The current Hspell C API is very low-level, in the sense that it leaves the user to
implement many features that some users take for granted that a spell-checker should
provide. For example it doesn't provide any facilities for a user-defined personal
dictionary. It also has separate functions for checking valid Hebrew words and valid
gimatria, and no function to do both. It is assumed that the caller - a bigger spell-
checking library or word processor (for example), will already have these facilities. If
not, you may wish to look at the sources of hspell(1) for an example implementation.
Currently there is no concept of separate Hspell "contexts" in an application. Some of
the context is now global for the entire application: currently, a single list of legal
prefix-particles is kept, and the dictionary read by hspell_init() is always read from the
global default place. This may be solved in a later version, e.g., by switching to an API
like:
context = hspell_new_context();
hspell_set_dictionary_path(context, "/some/path/hebrew.wgz");
hspell_init(context, flags);
...
hspell_check_word(context, word, preflenp);
Note that despite the global context mentioned above, after initialization all functions
described here are thread-safe, because they only read the dictionary data, not write to
it.
hspell_trycorrect() is not as powerful as it could have been, with typos or certain kinds
of spelling mistakes not giving useful correction suggestions. Along with more types of
corrections, hspell_trycorrect() needs a better way to order the likelihood of the
corrections, as an unordered list of 100 corrections would be just as useful (or rather,
useless) as none.
In some cases of errors during hspell_init(), warning messages are printed to the standard
errors. This is a bad thing for a library to do.
There are too many CAVEATS in this manual.
VERSION
The version of hspell described by this manual page is 1.2.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2000-2012, Nadav Har'El <nyh@math.technion.ac.il> and Dan Kenigsberg
<danken@cs.technion.ac.il>.
Hspell is free software, released under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL)
version 3. Note that not only the programs in the distribution, but also the dictionary
files and the generated word lists, are licensed under the AGPL. There is no warranty of
any kind.
See the LICENSE file for more information and the exact license terms.
The latest version of this software can be found in http://hspell.ivrix.org.il/
SEE ALSO
hspell(1)