<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Creating A New Character Set - GNU Aspell 0.60.6.1</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta name="description" content="Aspell 0.60.6.1 spell checker user's manual.">
<meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.8">
<link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top">
<link rel="up" href="Adding-Support-For-Other-Languages.html#Adding-Support-For-Other-Languages" title="Adding Support For Other Languages">
<link rel="prev" href="Controlling-the-Behavior-of-Run_002dtogether-Words.html#Controlling-the-Behavior-of-Run_002dtogether-Words" title="Controlling the Behavior of Run-together Words">
<link rel="next" href="Creating-An-Official-Dictionary-Package.html#Creating-An-Official-Dictionary-Package" title="Creating An Official Dictionary Package">
<link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage">
<!--
This is the user's manual for Aspell
GNU Aspell is a spell checker designed to eventually replace Ispell.
It can either be used as a library or as an independent spell checker.
Copyright (C) 2000--2011 Kevin Atkinson.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software
Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and
no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the
section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
-->
<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css">
<style type="text/css"><!--
pre.display { font-family:inherit }
pre.format { font-family:inherit }
pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller }
pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller }
pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller }
pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller }
span.sc { font-variant:small-caps }
span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; }
span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; }
--></style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="node">
<p>
<a name="Creating-A-New-Character-Set"></a>
Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Creating-An-Official-Dictionary-Package.html#Creating-An-Official-Dictionary-Package">Creating An Official Dictionary Package</a>,
Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Controlling-the-Behavior-of-Run_002dtogether-Words.html#Controlling-the-Behavior-of-Run_002dtogether-Words">Controlling the Behavior of Run-together Words</a>,
Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Adding-Support-For-Other-Languages.html#Adding-Support-For-Other-Languages">Adding Support For Other Languages</a>
<hr>
</div>
<h3 class="section">7.8 Creating A New Character Set</h3>
<p>If there is not a standard character set for your language then you
can invent one. The new charset will only be used by Aspell
internally. If the option <samp><span class="option">data-encoding</span></samp> is set to
`<samp><span class="samp">utf-8</span></samp>', and your current locale character type is always set to
`<samp><span class="samp">utf-8</span></samp>', then you can use UTF-8 for everything and not
worry yourself that an 8-bit character set is being used internally.
If your language has no more than 210 distinct symbols, including
different capitalizations and accents, then Aspell can support it.
<p>The first thing to do is to download the Aspell lang package
(see <a href="Creating-An-Official-Dictionary-Package.html#Creating-An-Official-Dictionary-Package">Creating An Official Dictionary Package</a>)
and check if one of the provided charsets in this package will suite
your needs. Non-standard character sets are provided for many scripts
and languages. If not, then see the included <samp><span class="file">README</span></samp> file for
instructions on creating a new one. Version 0.1, and 0.2 of
mkchardata <em>will not</em> work as the format of the character data
file has changed.
</body></html>
