A search for the best spell checking tools for the Icelandic language.
I frequently use markdown to document, project manage and plan things. Having a good spell checker is essential since I have no problem making spelling errors. Of all the editors out there, Marktext has become a favorite. It comes with a nice English spell check but is lacking the Icelandic language. Marktext both has a hunspell and system spell checker for Windows and macOS but the Icelandic languages package does not work. For way too long have I just copied the text in and out of google drive to do the spell check so I want to find another way.
I did a Quick search on the internet for hunspell, .aff, .dic and .bdic and almost everything I found was about 5 years old. Including interviews on RÚV talking about the lack of data for the Icelandic language. I’m not sure if that’s because we just gave up or there is something new out there.
I found out that the markdown editor that I was using Ghostwriter and Typora were using .aff and .dic for their spell checking. Below is a table of the .aff and .dic files I found online.
| name | note |
|---|---|
| titoBouzout/Dictionaries | worked fine for ghostwrited but not when converted to .bdic |
| hunspell-is | Couldn't figure out how to use it |
| LibreOffice | Used to make the .bdic |
- Hunspell : Spell checker
- Ispell : spell checker
- .aff file: grammar rule files
- .dic file: dictinary file with a wordlist
- .bdic file: binary dictinary file that also inclueds grammar rules
After being unsuccessful in finding a .bdic file for Marktext I found a generator that makes one from .aff, .dic and .dic_delta. I couldn't find or understand the .dic_delta and it generated the file even if it was missing. I had to do it using Linux and it was well documented and I didn't have any troubles.
convert-dict-tool-from-chromium
To add it to Marktext simply add it to the dictionary folder and change the spell settings to use hunspell. C:\Users%user%\AppData\Roaming\marktext\dictionaries
It works well now It's missing some words but I can add them over time and Marktext generates a .json file so it's easy to keep track of it and I might update it here from time to time.
