Editing GNU Aspell (section)

== Comparison to Ispell ==
Unlike [[Ispell]], Aspell can easily check [[UTF-8]] documents without having to use a special dictionary. But the mechanism behind is still 8-bit.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://aspell.net/0.60.7/man-html/Languages-Which-Aspell-can-Support.html#Languages-Which-Aspell-can-Support |chapter=Appendix B Languages Which Aspell can Support |url=http://aspell.net/0.60.7/man-html/index.html#Top |title=GNU Aspell 0.60.7 |access-date=2021-11-15 |quote=Even though Aspell will remain 8-bit internally}}</ref> Aspell will also do its best to respect the current [[Locale (computer software)|locale]] setting. Other advantages over Ispell include support for using multiple dictionaries at once and intelligently handling personal dictionaries when more than one Aspell process is open at once. However, Ispell follows the Unix convention of being a command applied to a file, e.g., {{code|ispell text-file-with-spelling-errors}}, whereas Aspell requires other command-line options, and the "{{code|--help}}" option is more comprehensive.  Sample uses include:
* Interactively run through the {{var|text_file}} checking the spelling ({{code|aspell check text_file}}).
* Allow typing a word (followed by newline and {{kbd|Ctrl-D}}) to find words that sound the same ({{code|aspell soundslike}}).