Spellcheckers Good or Bad
I've been using this wiki for a couple of years now, and you may notice that I'm pretty bad at spelling (and I don't really care, so there!). The wiki doesn't come with a built in spellchecker, the editor is just a text box for gods sake!
I upgraded my versions of Firefox and Galeon (my web browser of choice), and there is wonderful new feature - the web browser has a built in spell checker, so no matter which web site I go to, if I type into a text box, it will check my spelling. However, it doesn't have any mechanism to correct my spelling mistakes, or to offer suggestions. At first, I thought that this was a half baked solution, but I've changed my mind - its perfect! Here's why...
Whenever I spell a word incorrectly, I get a squiggly red line under the word. This is great, because I get instant feedback, telling me that I've spelled the word wrong. If I were using a word processor, I would get it to replace it with the correct version, and I wouldn't learn how to spell. I can't do that now, so I'm forced to think about what the correct spelling is, and if I can't fix it, I have to go to the effort of looking up the damn word in an on-line dictionary. The net result is, I learn how to spell proply (sic).
Computer aided spellcheckers : Good
Computer aided spelling correcters : Good for lazy people, bad for people who want to learn.
PS. my spellchecker states that "spellchecker" is not valid (but "spell-checker" is), and nor is "spelt" valid. On the other hand Wiktionary likes "spellchecker", but doesn't like "spell-checker". It does like "spelt" and "spelled", but I hate the word "spelled", it sounds so American!