jinx
- Description
- Enchanted Spell Checker
- Latest
- jinx-1.10.0.20241119.164445.tar (.sig), 2024-Nov-19, 130 KiB
- Maintainer
- Daniel Mendler <mail@daniel-mendler.de>
- Website
- https://github.com/minad/jinx
- Browse ELPA's repository
- CGit or Gitweb
- Badge
- Manual
- jinx
To install this package from Emacs, use package-install
or list-packages
.
Full description
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
widely-used API of the Enchant library. Jinx automatically compiles jinx-mod.c
and loads the dynamic module at startup. By binding directly to the native
Enchant API, Jinx avoids the slower backend process communication with Aspell.
Enchant is widely used by other text editors and supports Nuspell, Hunspell,
Aspell and a few language-specific backends.
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 Java,
Ruby or Rust are listed in jinx-camel-modes
. For these modes composite words in
camelCase
and PascalCase
are accepted.
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 inemacs-xyz.scm
- Nix:
jinx
defined inelpa-packages.nix
- Void, Fedora:
enchant2-devel
,pkgconf
- OpenSUSE:
emacs-jinx
orenchant
,pkgconf
- FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Mac:
enchant2
,pkgconf
On Windows the installation of the native module may require manual intervention.
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 for additional configuration tips. The wiki documents
configurations to save misspellings as global abbreviations and support for
Ispell LocalWords
.
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 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)
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
.
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 barring a few exceptions. 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 for details.
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: 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).
- 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). 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
.
7. Contributions
Since this package is part of GNU ELPA contributions require a copyright assignment to the FSF.
Old versions
jinx-1.10.0.20241105.213225.tar.lz | 2024-Nov-06 | 24.0 KiB |
jinx-1.10.0.20241024.160237.tar.lz | 2024-Oct-24 | 24.0 KiB |
jinx-1.10.0.20240926.181428.tar.lz | 2024-Sep-26 | 24.0 KiB |
jinx-1.10.0.20240824.81752.tar.lz | 2024-Aug-24 | 23.6 KiB |
jinx-1.9.0.20240723.191335.tar.lz | 2024-Jul-23 | 23.6 KiB |
jinx-1.7.0.20240606.90956.tar.lz | 2024-Jun-06 | 23.3 KiB |
jinx-0.9.0.20231124.125024.tar.lz | 2023-Nov-24 | 21.9 KiB |
jinx-0.8.0.20230626.182519.tar.lz | 2023-Jun-26 | 20.4 KiB |
jinx-0.7.0.20230426.131453.tar.lz | 2023-Apr-26 | 18.6 KiB |
jinx-0.2.0.20230326.205655.tar.lz | 2023-Mar-26 | 11.7 KiB |
News
1. Development
- Require Emacs 28.1.
jinx-languages
: Group dictionaries by dictionary provider.
2. Version 1.10 (2024-07-23)
- Bump Compat dependency to Compat 30.
- Add include and linkpaths from FreeBSD for compilation.
- Add
jinx--syntax-overrides
to override syntax table.
3. Version 1.9 (2024-06-29)
- Bugfix: In some rare scenarios, Jinx could hang when checking pending regions.
jinx-correct-all
: AddONLY-CHECK
prefix argument.
4. Version 1.8 (2024-06-19)
- Bugfix in
jinx-correct
: Fixwrong-type-argument
error if no Enchant dictionaries are found.
5. Version 1.7 (2024-05-15)
jinx--word-valid-p
: Do not error on invalid characters.jinx-save-languages
: New custom variable.
6. Version 1.6 (2024-04-12)
- Bugfix (again): Ensure that directory local variables work correctly with Jinx. It is possible to turn Jinx on or off via dir-locals, and also configure the language and local words.
7. Version 1.5 (2024-04-04)
- Bugfix: Ensure that
jinx-next
unfolds hidden misspellings. - Bugfix: Ensure that directory local variable enabling
jinx-mode
works.
8. Version 1.4 (2024-03-10)
- Bugfix: Ensure that
jinx-correct
saves words without text properties in the file-local variablejinx-local-words
. - Bugfix: Ensure that
eval
local variable enablingjinx-mode
works. jinx-correct
: If a region is marked, calljinx-correct-all
and restrict corrections to the marked region.jinx-exclude-faces
,jinx-include-faces
,jinx-exclude-regexps
: Support mode aliases.
9. Version 1.3 (2024-02-23)
- Fix interaction bug with the newest version of AUCTeX, where the major mode got changed unexpectedly.
10. Version 1.2 (2024-01-22)
- Fix deadlock on MacOS during Jinx startup.
- Timer optimizations.
11. Version 1.1 (2023-12-27)
- Add mouse context menu to correct misspellings. The menu is triggered by a right click on a misspelling.
12. Version 1.0 (2023-12-01)
- Allow capitalized form of a word if non-capitalized word is stored in the session word list.
- Replace
jinx-excluded-modes
withglobal-jinx-modes
, the Emacs 28 convention for globalized minor modes. jinx-correct
: Offer session words as suggestions.- Add
jinx-correct-nearest
,jinx-correct-all
andjinx-correct-word
commands. The commandjinx-correct
dispatches to one of those commands depending on the prefix argument. - Recommend libenchant 2.3.1 or newer. Print a message if Enchant is outdated.
- Support $LANG=C and $LANG=POSIX environment variable settings.
13. Version 0.9 (2023-07-02)
- 🪄 Make sure that Emojis are not marked as misspelled 🧙🏼♀️.
- Rename
jinx-correct-next/previous
tojinx-next/previous
. The commands can be used outside the minibuffer. - Bind
M-n
andM-p
tojinx-next/previous
injinx-overlay-map
. - Bind
M-$
tojinx-correct
in thejinx-overlay-map
. - Add
jinx-repeat-map
. - Rename category of Jinx overlays to
jinx-overlay
. - Rename
jinx-misspelled-map
tojinx-overlay-map
. - Add many more language modes to
jinx-camel-modes
.
14. Version 0.8 (2023-04-28)
jinx-correct
: Consistently move backward to the previous misspelling. In order to move backward further, pressM-$
again (orM-p
). Move forward withM-n
.jinx-correct-select
: Support more than 10 quick keys.jinx-languages
: New argumentLANGS
.- Add
jinx-faces
customization group. - Add configurable save actions via
jinx--save-keys
. - Detect C compiler via $CC or
executable-find
.
15. Version 0.7 (2023-04-21)
- Bugfixes
jinx-languages
: Only ask in file-backed buffers if file-local variable should be saved.- Push
undo-boundary
before correcting a word, such that corrections are not undone in a single step. jinx-correct
: Use+
as prefix to add word to the current session.- Add
jinx-correct-map
bound in thejinx-correct
minibuffer. - Add navigation keys to correction UI. The commands
jinx-correct-next
and
… …