Spell checking support for Coptic in Abiword

Now it is finally possible to use a word processor with spell checking support for the Coptic language. In fact I have written a dictionary file for hunspell  (for Bohairic) and was targeting OpenOffice.org. Due to the fact that OO integrates an older icu-version that lacks support of the Unicode Coptic page, almost all Coptic characters are not recognized in OO.

But fortunately the spell check wrapper Enchant supports now hunspell, so that it is now possible to let Abiword support Coptic spell checking

Installation details:

Installation for Windows
This is still under investigation. So far, I was not able to compile Abiword with Enchant under Windows.
If you happen to know, how this can be achieved, please contact me.


Installation for Linux

Follow the following steps:

• Get and install hunspell as described here. Download the dictionary files from there, create a new directory in you home directory and name it .enchant. Create a subdirectory in .enchant and name it hunspell. There you have to copy the downloaded and untarred dictionary files.

• If you have installed hunspell with ncurses-support, then you can test, if it works by typing:

• Install at least one Unicode font with Coptic glyphs. I have re-mapped some famous fonts in the publich domain (CS Coptic) and merged them into the FreeSerif Unicode font. I advice you to use the FreeSerifAthanasius, since I have adjusted the ancher points for the combining marks in it (for accurate definition the position of the Jinkim). To get this font and few other follow this link.

• Get the source code of  Enchant , install it and make sure, that when running ./configure it reports that it found hunspell.

• Create a file in the directory .enchant and name it  enchant.ordering, in which you define for which language Enchant shall use which spell checker. It might look something like:
  

• Get the source code of the Abiword version 2.4.6 and untar it.

• Download the patch I have prepared and apply it to the base directory of Abiword. This patch adds the language "Coptic" in the pull-down menu of languages in Abiword. Move to the parent directory of Abiword and type:
  

• Make sure that all the packages that Abiword needs to compile are installed on your system. You will probably need only to compile the core abi-package itself (the abi sub-directory in abiword-2.4.6). All other packages should be either already installed on your system (like iconv), or are not needed for the Linux installation.  If some library is missing, consult the manual of you Linux-distribution to learn about installing it. Then compile abi and install it.

• Start Abiword, load the sample file that comes with the Coptic dictionary files and test if it works. If not, make sure that you are using a Unicode Coptic font. Check, if the text is also recognized as cop_EG (should be displayed in the lower bar of Abiword at the right, see the screenshot above).

• To write your own text, you have to install a Coptic keymap as described in this page. Be aware that in contrary to the old CS-Coptic fonts (non Unicode), the Jinkim and the above bar (in fact all combining diacritical marks) have to be entered after the letter not before.
  

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last updated: 03.12.2006
Moheb Mekhaiel