Sander van Geloven

Nuspell version 3 is a FOSS checker that is written in pure C++17. It extensively supports character encodings, locales, compounding, affixing and complex morphology. Existing spell checking in web browsers, office suits, IDEs and other text editors can use this as a drop-in replacement. Nuspell supports 90 languages, suggestions and personal dictionaries.

In this talk we will summarize the functionality of Nuspell version 3 and provide easy to follow examples on how to use it as a command-line tool or link to the C++ library. Newly made integrations in Firefox and Enchant will be discussed. The audience will be invited to further integrate Nuspell into their software, create new language bindings, port it to other operating systems and help grow its community. This new spell checker has outgrown from an MVP to a faster and more complete spell checker.

Nuspell is a FOSS checker that is written in pure C++14. It extensively supports character encodings, locales, compounding, affixing and complex morphology. Existing spell checking in web browsers, office suits, IDEs and other text editors can use this as a drop-in replacement. Nuspell supports 90 languages, suggestions and personal dictionaries.

In this talk we will highlight the functionality of Nuspell and provide easy to follow examples on how to use it as a command-line tool or link to the C++ library. The audience will be invited to integrate this new spell checker into their software, create new language bindings or port it to other operating systems.

Numerous works of architecture, furniture, sculptures, illustrations and typography were made during the 1920s by a modernistic style called the Amsterdamse School. A lot of these works are not easily accessible and, even though preservation efforts are being taken, many are deteriorating over time. This talk will elaborate on how FOSS design and typographic tools were developed and used to digitise and extend a century old font under an OFL.

To aid the effort of preserving and reuse minimalistic – though often playful – designs from the early 20th century, Stichting z25.org ran a project where an sculpted incomplete typeface was digitised and made available as a font. The focus of this case study was on typographic design, FOSS development and co-funding.

This project used contemporary cultural entrepreneurship by combining crowdfunding and public funding to finance this project. As a side-effect, the crowdfunding campaign contributed to local awareness about the existing cultural heritage and more insight to the amount of work required for typographical designs.

After completing a study of the original artist's works, a pipeline of several FOSS design tools was set up to meet this challenge. Graphviz was used to categorise and divide the design workload in infographics which also show character interdependencies. Additionally, we show how design work and collaboration can be managed more in Agile environments. The individual glyph designs were done in Inkscape and the font files were generated by using FontForge.

FontForge offers sharing guides (lines supporting and accelerating the design process) amongst glyph designs, however Inkscape has no such facility as the individual SVG files are not synchronised for this. We developed a tool in Python to selectively synchronise guides.

In this presentation, z25.org will talk you through their adventure of funding, developing, digitising, designing and sharing. The result is a preserved and revitalised typeface called Neude that lay dormant for over a hundred years on impressive statues in the former post office in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Free and open source software deals with many kinds of data, including written text. Authors of all levels are prone to making spelling or grammatical mistakes when editing content. The challenge is to offer feedback directly to a writer, during the content creation process, in order to fix errors immediately. Simultaneously, his or her writing skills improve accordingly. Several FOSS writing tools are currently available with a myriad of language bindings, libraries and APIs. This talk will introduce software developers to best practises, help avoiding pitfalls, give a glance of the future and put a smile on your face.

Free and open source software deals with many kinds of data, including written text. Authors of all levels are prone to making spelling or grammatical mistakes when editing content. This can result in ugly, ambiguous and incomprehensible texts or, in worst-case scenarios, even errors with severe consequences.

All sorts of integrated development environments warn software developers on mistakes and probable risky patterns by means of lint-like source code checking. Likewise, software can be used as well to assist developers and end-users in writing boring documents, prose and poetry. The challenge is to offer feedback directly to a writer during the content creation process in order to fix errors immediately. Simultaneously, his or her writing skills improve accordingly. Writing tools can do much more, such as suggesting synonyms, handling hyphenation and helping with style.

Several FOSS writing tools are currently available with a myriad of language bindings, libraries and APIs. One was even presented in the opening keynote of FOSDEM 2015. Some applications are deprecated, others are used inefficiently, sometimes configuration is faulty and suggestions can be handled incorrectly. Furthermore, not all languages are supported equally and contributions such as lexica, corpora et cetera are welcome.

By means of slides containing practical examples you will learn how to integrate FOSS writing tools in an efficient way to improve textual content creation. A special but very quick sidestep will be made regarding proper names for use in geographical data. This talk will introduce software developers to best practises, help avoiding pitfalls, give a glance of the future and put a smile on your face.