jinx.info

This is docypZdhK.info, produced by makeinfo version 6.8 from jinx.texi.

INFO-DIR-SECTION Emacs misc features
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Jinx: (jinx).         Enchanted Spell Checker.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY


File: docypZdhK.info,  Node: Top,  Next: Installation,  Up: (dir)

jinx.el - Enchanted Spell Checker
*********************************

Jinx is a fast just-in-time spell-checker for Emacs.  Jinx highlights
misspelled words in the text of the visible portion of the buffer.  For
efficiency, Jinx highlights misspellings lazily, recognizes window
boundaries and text folding, if any.  For example, when unfolding or
scrolling, only the newly visible part of the text is checked if it has
not been checked before.  Each misspelling can be corrected from a list
of dictionary words presented as a completion menu.

   Installing Jinx is straight-forward and configuring should not need
much intervention.  Jinx can be used completely on its own, but can also
safely co-exist with Emacs’s built-in spell-checker Ispell.

   Jinx’s high performance and low resource usage comes from directly
calling the API of the Enchant library
(https://rrthomas.github.io/enchant/).  Jinx automatically compiles
‘jinx-mod.c’ and loads the dynamic module at startup.  By binding
directly to the native Enchant API, Jinx avoids slower inter-process
communication.  Enchant is used by other text editors and supports
multiple backends like Nuspell (https://nuspell.github.io/), Hunspell
(http://hunspell.github.io/) and Aspell (http://aspell.net/).

   Jinx supports spell-checking multiple languages in the same buffer.
See the ‘jinx-languages’ variable to customize for multiple languages.
Jinx can flexibly ignore misspellings via faces (‘jinx-exclude-faces’
and ‘jinx-include-faces’), regular expressions (‘jinx-exclude-regexps’),
and programmable predicates.  Jinx comes preconfigured for the most
important Emacs major modes.  Modes like JavaScript, TypeScript, Java,
Ruby or Rust are listed in ‘jinx-camel-modes’.  For these modes
composite words in ‘camelCase’ and ‘PascalCase’ are accepted.

* Menu:

* Installation::
* Configuration::
* Correcting misspellings::
* Navigating between misspellings::
* Enchant backends and personal dictionaries::
* Alternatives::
* Contributions::


File: docypZdhK.info,  Node: Installation,  Next: Configuration,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

1 Installation
**************

Jinx can be installed from GNU ELPA or MELPA directly with
‘package-install’.

   Most importantly your Emacs must be compiled with dynamic module
support.  Jinx requires ‘libenchant’, which is needed to compile the
native module at install time.  If ‘pkgconf’ or ‘pkg-config’ is
available, Jinx will use it to locate ‘libenchant’ during installation.
Depending on your BSD or Linux distribution you have to install
different packages:

   • Debian, Ubuntu: ‘libenchant-2-dev’, ‘pkgconf’
   • Arch, Gentoo: ‘enchant’, ‘pkgconf’
   • Guix: ‘emacs-jinx’ defined in ‘emacs-xyz.scm’
   • Nix: ‘jinx’ defined in ‘elpa-packages.nix’
   • Void, Fedora: ‘enchant2-devel’, ‘pkgconf’
   • OpenSUSE: ‘emacs-jinx’ or ‘enchant’, ‘pkgconf’
   • FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Mac: ‘enchant2’, ‘pkgconf’

   On Windows the installation of the native module may require manual
intervention.


File: docypZdhK.info,  Node: Configuration,  Next: Correcting misspellings,  Prev: Installation,  Up: Top

2 Configuration
***************

Jinx has two modes: the command, ‘global-jinx-mode’ activates globally;
and the command, ‘jinx-mode’, for activating for specific modes.

     ;; Alternative 1: Enable Jinx globally
     (add-hook 'emacs-startup-hook #'global-jinx-mode)

     ;; Alternative 2: Enable Jinx per mode
     (dolist (hook '(text-mode-hook prog-mode-hook conf-mode-hook))
       (add-hook hook #'jinx-mode))

   The commands ‘jinx-correct’ and ‘jinx-languages’ are marked as
autoloads.  Invoking ‘jinx-correct’ corrects the misspellings.  Binding
‘jinx-correct’ to ‘M-$’ takes over that key from the default assignment
to ‘ispell-word’.  Since Jinx is independent of the Ispell package,
‘M-$’ can be re-used.

     (keymap-global-set "M-$" #'jinx-correct)
     (keymap-global-set "C-M-$" #'jinx-languages)

   • ‘M-$’ triggers correction for the misspelled word before point.
   • ‘C-u M-$’ triggers correction for the entire buffer.
   • ‘C-u C-u M-$’ forces correction of the word at point, even if it is
     not misspelled.

   A sample configuration with the popular ‘use-package’ macro is shown
here:

     (use-package jinx
       :hook (emacs-startup . global-jinx-mode)
       :bind (("M-$" . jinx-correct)
              ("C-M-$" . jinx-languages)))

   See also the Jinx Wiki (https://github.com/minad/jinx/wiki) for
additional configuration tips.  The wiki documents configurations to
save misspellings as global abbreviations and support for Ispell
‘LocalWords’.


File: docypZdhK.info,  Node: Correcting misspellings,  Next: Navigating between misspellings,  Prev: Configuration,  Up: Top

3 Correcting misspellings
*************************

The easiest way to correct a misspelling is to right click on the word,
underlined with a wavy line.  Then a context menu will open where you
can select from suggestions.

   If you prefer to use the keyboard, invoke the command ‘jinx-correct’.
The recommended binding is ‘M-$’, see the configuration section.
Suggested corrections will be displayed as a completion menu.  You can
press the displayed digit keys to quickly select a suggestion.
Furthermore the menu offers options to save the word temporarily for the
current session, in the personal dictionary or in the file-local or
directory-local variables.

   You can enter arbitrary input at the correction prompt in order to
make the correction or to store a modified word in the personal
dictionary.  For example if you typed ‘alotriomorpc’, the prompt offers
you the option ‘@alotriomorpc’ which would add this word to your
personal dictionary upon selection.  You can then correct the option to
‘@allotriomorphic’ and add it to the dictionary.

   While inside the ‘jinx-correct’ prompt, the keys ‘M-n’ and ‘M-p’ are
bound to ‘jinx-next’ and ‘jinx-previous’ respectively and allow you to
move the next and previous misspelled word.

   The completion menu is compatible with all popular completion UIs:
Vertico, Mct, Icomplete, Ivy, Helm and the default completions buffer.
In case you use Vertico I suggest that you tweak the completion display
via ‘vertico-multiform-mode’ for the completion category ‘jinx’.  You
can for example use the grid display such that more suggestions fit on
the screen and enable annotations.

     (add-to-list 'vertico-multiform-categories
                  '(jinx grid (vertico-grid-annotate . 20)))
     (vertico-multiform-mode 1)


File: docypZdhK.info,  Node: Navigating between misspellings,  Next: Enchant backends and personal dictionaries,  Prev: Correcting misspellings,  Up: Top

4 Navigating between misspellings
*********************************

When correcting a word with ‘jinx-correct’, the movement commands
‘jinx-next’ and ‘jinx-previous’ are available on the keys ‘M-n’ and
‘M-p’ to navigate to the next and previous misspelling respectively.
The movement commands work from within the minibuffer during
‘jinx-correct’ and also globally outside the minibuffer context.

   While the commands are not bound globally by default, they are
available as ‘M-n’ and ‘M-p’ if point is placed on top of a misspelled
word overlay.  If you want you can add them and other commands to the
‘jinx-mode-map’, such that they are always available independent of
point placement.  If ‘repeat-mode’ from Emacs 28 is enabled, the
movement can be repeated with the keys ‘n’ and ‘p’.


File: docypZdhK.info,  Node: Enchant backends and personal dictionaries,  Next: Alternatives,  Prev: Navigating between misspellings,  Up: Top

5 Enchant backends and personal dictionaries
********************************************

Enchant uses different backends for different languages.  The backends
are ordered as specified in the personal configuration file
‘~/.config/enchant/enchant.ordering’ and the system-wide configuration
file ‘/usr/share/enchant-2/enchant.ordering’.  Enchant uses Hunspell as
default backend for most languages.  For English Enchant prefers Aspell
and for Finnish and Turkish special backends called Voikko and Zemberek
are used.

   Depending on the backend the personal dictionary will be taken from
different locations, e.g., ‘~/.aspell.LANG.pws’ or
‘~/.config/enchant/LANG.dic’.  It is possible to symlink different
personal dictionaries such that they are shared by different spell
checkers.  See the Enchant manual
(https://rrthomas.github.io/enchant/lib/enchant.html) for details.


File: docypZdhK.info,  Node: Alternatives,  Next: Contributions,  Prev: Enchant backends and personal dictionaries,  Up: Top

6 Alternatives
**************

There exist multiple alternative spell-checking packages for Emacs, most
famously the builtin ispell.el and flyspell.el packages.  The main
advantages of Jinx are its automatic checking of the visible text, its
sharp focus on performance and the ability to easily use multiple
dictionaries at once.  The following three alternative packages come
closest to the behavior of Jinx.

   • jit-spell (https://github.com/astoff/jit-spell): Jinx borrows ideas
     from Augusto Stoffel’s Jit-spell.  Jit-spell uses the less
     efficient Ispell process communication instead of Jinx’s calling a
     native API.  Since Jit-spell does not restrict spell checking to
     the visible text only, it may enqueue the entire buffer too eagerly
     for checking.  This happens when scrolling around or when stealth
     font locking is enabled.  For this reason, Jit-spell affected load
     and latency in my tests (issue on Github
     (https://github.com/astoff/jit-spell/issues/9)).

   • spell-fu (https://codeberg.org/ideasman42/emacs-spell-fu): The idea
     to check words just in the visible text came from Campbell Barton’s
     spell-fu package.  Spell-fu is fast but incurs high memory overhead
     on account of its dictionary in a hash table.  For languages with
     compound words and inflected word forms, this overhead magnifies
     (issue on Codeberg
     (https://codeberg.org/ideasman42/emacs-spell-fu/issues/40)).  By
     accessing the Enchant API directly, Jinx avoids any overhead.  Jinx
     also benefits from the advanced spell-checker algorithms of Enchant
     (affixation, compound words, etc.).

   • flyspell: Flyspell is a built-in package.  Flyspell highlights
     misspellings while typing.  Only the word under the cursor is
     spell-checked.  Jinx, on the other hand, is more effective because
     it automatically checks for misspellings in the entire visible text
     of the buffer at once.  Flyspell can check the entire buffer but
     must be instructed to do so via the command ‘flyspell-buffer’.


File: docypZdhK.info,  Node: Contributions,  Prev: Alternatives,  Up: Top

7 Contributions
***************

Since this package is part of GNU ELPA
(https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/jinx.html) contributions require a
copyright assignment to the FSF.



Tag Table:
Node: Top201
Node: Installation2309
Node: Configuration3386
Node: Correcting misspellings5044
Node: Navigating between misspellings6999
Node: Enchant backends and personal dictionaries7996
Node: Alternatives9036
Node: Contributions11248

End Tag Table


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