Auto-correct the "*ign" -> "*ing" typo
reddit / emacs

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HM0880 · 2022-11-19 16:56

I use `global-abbrev-table` to auto-correct my common typos; a short
example is below.

    (define-abbrev-table 'global-abbrev-table
        '(("adn" "and" nil 0)
          ("nad" "and" nil 0)))

I would like to auto-correct the `*ign` -> `*ing` typo.  Using the
generic regex `("*ign" "*ing" nil 0)` works *except* that "sign"
becomes "sing".  Is there a way to use the `("*ign" "*ing" nil 0)`
regex and only ignore the word "sign"?  Or do I need to define each
"ign" typo manually?  Or is there a better option?

edit: remove `*` so that the text is not italicized.

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joranvar · 2022-11-19 18:00

And by design, malign the reign of a foreign sovereign? Of feign to
resign from a campaign for benign champaign?

(Sorry, I don't know if it's possible to exclude a word (or better
yet, several words) from abbrev, but I could not refrain from pointing
out other words that correctly end in -ign
(https://www.thefreedictionary.com/words-that-end-in-ign). Hope
someone else knows a solution.)

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HM0880 · 2022-11-19 18:29

Ha!

In my day job, "sign" occurs more frequently than "feign" and friends.
:) Hopefully there's a solution shorter than "write all -ing words in
a lookup table."

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mickeyp · 2022-11-19 19:51

I wrote about this a little while ago. But I instead prefer sourcing a
common list of typos -- wikipedia has an extensive one I've used for
many, many years -- and feeding it to Emacs:

https://www.masteringemacs.org/article/correcting-typos-misspellings-
abbrev

It's a better approach in the long run, I think, to explicitly list
them instead -- if you would deign to do so :-)

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HM0880 · 2022-11-19 20:55

Thanks for the suggestion! It's a good sign to get a response from the
Mastering Emacs author, so I will realign my design choices and use a
separate file.

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mickeyp · 2022-11-19 21:54

I mean it's all up to you, of course, but I just foresee it generating
a lot more typos in the long run.

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_viz_ · 2022-11-20 07:24

Use the :expand-function abbrev-table property to check if the
previous word at point is sign and return nil if so?

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HM0880 · 2022-11-22 00:13

This sounds like what I want. Can you point me to where I can find the
`:expand-function` documentation for `abbrev-table`? (I looked in Help
without success.)

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_viz_ · 2022-11-22 02:34

Check the docstring of define-abbrev-table and its info entry.