362453 - Spell-checker can't match on dictionary words containing punctuation.

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 318040

(Core :: Spelling checker, defect)

Description

[Mark Clements]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0

I haven't tested this fully, so perhaps the problem is more specific than indicated in the summary.  There is a fair amount of deduction on my part...

THE PROBLEM:

If I type "etc." into an input box, then Firefox underlines "etc" as a potential misspelling.  When I right-click on the word, one of the suggestions is "etc." - selecting this gives "etc.." with "etc" still underlined, but now with an extra dot.

Interestingly, "Mr." does not have this problem.

I am guessing that the reason for this error is that the dictionary contains the entry "etc." rather than "etc" (and "Mr" as opposed to "Mr.") and that Firefox treats punctuation characters in the form field as word delimiters.  In effect, the phrase "I like fish, birds, etc." becomes "I like fish birds etc" and because "etc" is not in the dictionary (only "etc." with a period) the word is highlighted as being incorrect.

I should emphasise that the solution is _not_ to include "etc" in the dictionary.  "etc" without a period is incorrect - the problem is in the way Firefox handles it.  (As a side-note, "Mr" without a period is probably also incorrect...)

I have also encountered a similar, possibly related, problem with hyphenated words that are manually added to the dictionary.  For example, I added the word "E-Bru" (the name of my band), but when I type it Firefox highlights "Bru" as misspelt (and in this case "E-Bru" is not listed as an alternative).


Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Stephanie Daugherty [:sdaugherty]]

wfm in Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20061129 Minefield/3.0a1 - Build ID: 2006112904

Comment 2

[Mark Clements]

I don't know if it's relevant, but I am using the British English dictionary.  Perhaps your dictionary contains "etc" instead of "etc." or has some other difference that stops this from showing up?

Comment 3

[Mike Lierman]

All bugs have relating to poor spelling or other such issues have been fixed by the landing of Hunspell (bug# 319778). I was told to just mark these as dupes of bug# 319778).

Please mark verified.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9b3) Gecko/2008020514
Firefox/3.0b3 ID:2008020514

-Mike

Comment 4

[Mark Clements]

Re-opening this, as the problem as described in comment 0 is still happening in the latest 3.0 version of Firefox, which uses the new Hunspell engine:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-GB; rv:1.9.0.11) Gecko/2009060215 Firefox/3.0.11 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

British English Dictionary v1.19 (from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:3, which is where the 'Add dictionaries' link takes you).

As far as I can see it, this bug is one of the following:
* A bug in Hunspell, in which case the original summary stands.
* A general bug in the dictionary file, which might also be present in other dictionaries, in which case other dictionaries should be checked in order to find the scope of the problem.
* A bug which only affects the British English dictionary, in which case the summary needs updating to reflect this.
* There is a newer or better British English dictionary with this bug already fixed, in which case the bug is actually that it is not discoverable from within Firefox (an a.m.o. issue, I guess, which should probably be a new bug (and this one closed), rather than changing the summary).

Comment 5

[Matt Caywood]

Mark -- right, at bottom it's a tokenizer bug involving Hunspell. However it can be worked around by the en-GB dictionary maintainer if they choose.

Please see Bug 318040. This is a duplicate.