# Spell checking in nvi



## scottro (Jun 13, 2019)

I'm putting this under ports because to spell check, you'd need a port or package as far as I know.
In vim, one can do set spell and it spell checks as you  write, which can be useful for articles, emails, and the like. The only way I know of to spell check with builtin nvi is to set a key mapping--for example, on this  machine I use hunspell, not sure if there was  a reason to choose it over something else, or if it's just an old habit, and I have this in my .nexrc


```
map #5 : !hunspell -d en_US %
```
This way, if I hit F5, it goes through the file I'm working on, showing misspelled words.

However in some cases, for example, emails, I do find the vim set spell, where a misspelled word is highlighted as you type it, more convenient. I'm wondering if such a method exists in nvi. Googling, even putting nvi in quotes, is showing surprisingly little. I expect that the method I use for nvi is all that's available, but figured I would ask.  I could, I suppose, always install vim as well, and just use that when the realtime, so to speak, spell checking is desired, but it seems a waste.   I admit this is somewhat of a first world problem, though less of one than being unable to put one's oreo into the glass of milk because the glass is too narrow.


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