475546 - Spelling dictionaries for all languages reside in one file, so wrong words may be suggested

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 69687

(Core :: Spelling checker, defect)

Description

[Amir Aharoni]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1

Spelling dictionaries for several languages can be added to Firefox. But when a user adds an unknown word to the dictionary using "Add to dictionary...", it is added to the file persdict.dat, no matter what is the current language.

This can lead to unexpected results. For example, the English (US) spelling dictionary doesn't have the word "experimentalism" (which is itself a bug). I can add this word to the dictionary. But in some other time i can write in Catalan and write the word "experimentalism" in a Catalan text. It is supposed to be spelled "experimentalisme", but the spell checker won't notice it, because it was added to the common dictionary.

persdict.dat should be separated to several files, one for each dictionary. While you're at it, rename this file to something more readable, for example custom_spelling_dictionary.en-us.dat. (What does persdict.dat stand for? Persian?)

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
0. Install Firefox with at least two spelling dictionaries, for example English and Catalan.
1. While using the English spelling dictionary, write a word that the spelling checker definitely won't recognize (e.g. qwertyuiop).
2. Switch to Catalan spelling dictionary.
3. Check if the word is marked as a mistake.
Actual Results:  
Currently the word "qwertyuiop" will not be marked as a mistake.

Expected Results:  
The word "qwertyuiop" should be marked as a mistake.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Amir, would you agree this should be a blocker to bug 69687?

Comment 2

[Amir Aharoni]

(In reply to comment #1)
> Amir, would you agree this should be a blocker to bug 69687?

Possibly. I am not familiar with the internals of Mozilla well enough to judge.

What i can say is that comment #13 there is essentially the description of this bug here and it's good to know that i'm not the only one who is bothered by it.

Comment 4

[Andrea Monni]

Why was this bug marked as duplicate of bug 69687? I believe it should be marked as a blocker to it not a duplicate.

Comment 5

[Amir Aharoni]

(In reply to comment #4)
> Why was this bug marked as duplicate of bug 69687? I believe it should be
> marked as a blocker to it not a duplicate.

Yes - bug 69687 is a much bigger issue, needing major design changes. This bug here is well defined and limited to one issue.

Comment 6

[Andrea Monni]

Shall we re-open this bug then? And mark it as blocking bug 69687? In any case that bug should be somehow "deprecated", it went out of control

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

bug 69687 is, as you say, wandering in the wilderness.  But I doubt this bug would be addressed without the larger context being defined for how multiple languages being defined via bug 69687. And it's not clear to me multiple personal dictionaries will be part of a good solution.  Multiple files probably complicates any potential solution.  And the solution must also include handling words which span languages, eg place names and proper nouns.

These are the reasons for my duping this bug - any solution for that bug must ultimately handle the issue you describe here. But I don't claim to be right - if you see things differently please adjust the bugs accordingly.  Either way, suggest help get bug 69687 organized and rolling.

Comment 8

[Amir Aharoni]

(In reply to comment #7)
> And it's not clear to me multiple personal dictionaries will be part of a good solution.

I don't know what do you mean when you say "multiple personal dictionaries". I propose that it will be completely transparent to the user, unlike it is in OpenOffice, where the user must select a dictionary every time he adds a word to a dictionary. There's no default; even if there's only one dictionary, you must still make two clicks "add dictionary" -> "standard.dic".

What i propose is to make multiple files - one for each language. And of course, it will be used automatically.

I don't see great importance in having a common file for place names, as they can be spelled quite differently in different languages (Cologne/Köln is a famous example).

> These are the reasons for my duping this bug - any solution for that bug must
ultimately handle the issue you describe here

Maybe, but that bug's definition of the problem and the proposed solution are *very* vague. We're not writing a sophisticated office suite here, just a simple text field in a web browser. AFAIK people aren't writing their theses with it. However, solving this simple bug here will be quite helpful who use it for writing emails and Wikipedia articles in multiple languages.

And this is quite a bug, because it causes words to be identified incorrectly. That other bug is a vague feature request.