Have you seen this

aspell.sourceforge.net

Would it be possible to incorparate something like this into a module

so people could install a spell checker??

I realize that this wasn't what you asked, but alternatives to server side spell checking is client side spell checking provided as browser extensions:

ieSpell for IE based browsers
Spell Bound for Firefox

Safari has a Check Spelling as you Type setting
Opera can use Aspell

Not sure about other major browsers, anyone?

IMO server side spell checking will always be more limited than client side checking, since the text actually has to be sent to the server to be checked (Like the preview post option in newbb). Also to use aspell within PHP, PHP must be compiled with aspell specially limiting its usability on most hosts.

I think anyone who uses Linux is aware of aspell. There is also a windows port too, so no one is left out.

I actually have a XOOPS spellchecker module based on aspell - BUILT AND WORKING IN A PRODUCTION SITE! It is really cool, and requires NO MODIFICATION to any core or modules. It will spell check all fields on any page! I love it. It makes updating my website SOOOO much easier.

The only problem is that it requires a directory outside of the module directory ( /speller to be exact. ) I asked for some javascript assistance with fixing this to make it a proper module, but no javascript guru appeared.

I did not want to release it in such a poor state of affairs, but maybe I should.

JMass

Thank you Ackbarr. SpellBound works rather well. I didn't know about that extension.

I say just release it .. someone will pick it up and run with it :)

Besides .. i could really do with a copy :)