This is a copy of ispell 3.1.20 compiled to run on Windows 95 and NT.

MOTIVATION

Most versions of ispell that are available for Windows NT and 95/98
rely on custom versions of ispell.el, which are now out of date with
respect to Emacs 20.4. This means you cannot take advantage of the
newer features like flyspell-mode, and language support in Emacs. I
compiled this version with the goal of getting a copy of ispell 3.1
that would run with the ispell.el distributed with Emacs, so you can
take advantage of all the latest features now and in the future.
Originally I did it for my own use, but the number of problems
reported on the ntemacs-users mailing list lead me to generalize it
and make a basic, easily installed distribution.

This copy of ispell was compiled from the original 3.1.20 sources
found at ftp.gnu.org by adding in missing functions from the Emacs
source, or providing stubs until it compiled and worked for what I
want to use it for (spellchecking English and Spanish documents from
Emacs 20.4 using flyspell). If you are interested in improving it or
customising it for your site, the modified source is available in
ispell-src.zip where you obtained this file.

This version will work in standalone mode, although it does not make
very efficient use of the console, so screen refreshing is very slow.
The recommended use is with Emacs. This version works with the
ispell.el that is distributed with Emacs 20.3 and later. It may work
with other ispell.el's, but has not been tested. More importantly, it
works with the new flyspell.el so you can have on the fly spell
checking. It does not grab focus on my Windows 95 system, as many
people have reported ispell doing with other distributions. I cannot
guarantee that it will not happen for you though.


INSTALLATION

There are four files in this package:
  README you are reading now.
  ISPELL.EXE should go somewhere in your PATH.
  ENGLISH.HASH is the medium-sized English dictionary that is
    distributed with the original source. If you require other
    languages, or the small or large English dictionaries, you will
    have to find them elsewhere. This may be placed in your HOME
    directory (where your .emacs resides). If you place it elsewhere,
    you will need to specify the full path to it using the '-d'
    switch, or the DICTIONARY environment variable.
  ISPELL.INFO is the manual - it can be placed in your INFO directory
    if you are using Emacs, and an entry added for it to the DIR file
    (copy and modify one of the other entries for correct formatting -
    it is important that TABS and spaces are preserved in the DIR file).


If you want to use flyspell, you will need the following in your .emacs:

     (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'flyspell-mode)

Emacs 20.3 users will need the following (not required in 20.4):

     ;; Ispell has it's own coding-system support which is broken under W32
     (setq ispell-dictionary-alist
           '((nil "[A-Za-z]" "[^A-Za-z]" "[']" nil ("-B") nil raw-text-dos)
             ("american" "[A-Za-z]" "[^A-Za-z]" "[']" nil ("-B")
              nil raw-text-dos)
             ("british" "[A-Za-z]" "[^A-Za-z]" "[']" nil
              ("-B" "-d" "british") nil raw-text-dos)
             ("english" "[A-Za-z]" "[^A-Za-z]" "[']" nil ("-B")
              nil raw-text-dos)))

AFAIK that is everything you need to get up and running. For other
dictionaries, if you can't find .hash versions, you may need other
tools to convert them. Most of the tools are available from the site
where you found this, in the file ispell-ex.zip. The most notable
omission is mungelist, which is a Unix script for compressing the
dictionary, but you can make uncompressed dictionaries using
buildhash.exe (see dictionary makefile for how to run this command). I
have tested ispell with the Spanish (castellano.hash) dictionary with
no noticable problems.

If you have any trouble, or would like to improve this and make a
better distribution, please contact Jason Rumney <jasonr@altavista.net>.


NOTE TO ANYONE THAT WANTS TO MIRROR THIS SOFTWARE

If you want to mirror this distribution, please mirror ispell.zip,
ispell-ex.zip and ispell-src.zip together, or edit this README so
users can find the dictionary tools and source code if they wish.


KNOWN BUGS

* ispell-buffer sometimes fails with "Ispell misalignment: word
`misplled' point 6; probably incompatible versions" type error
messages. I think this is due to hidden text not being handled
properly, and I am not sure if this has been fixed in the released
version of Emacs 20.4 or not, as I do not use any of the modes that
this was reported as happening in.

GENERAL NOTES ABOUT ISPELL 3.1 (see also ispell.info)

@(#) International Ispell Version 3.1.20 10/10/95
@(#) Copyright (c), 1983, by Pace Willisson
@(#) International version Copyright (c) 1987, 1988, 1990-1995,
@(#) by Geoff Kuenning, Granada Hills, CA.  All rights reserved.
@(#)
@(#) Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
@(#) modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
@(#) are met:
@(#)
@(#) 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
@(#)    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
@(#) 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
@(#)    copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
@(#)    disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided
@(#)    with the distribution.
@(#) 3. All modifications to the source code must be clearly marked as
@(#)    such.  Binary redistributions based on modified source code
@(#)    must be clearly marked as modified versions in the documentation
@(#)    and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
@(#) 4. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this
@(#)    software must display the following acknowledgment:
@(#)      This product includes software developed by Geoff Kuenning and
@(#)      other unpaid contributors.
@(#) 5. The name of Geoff Kuenning may not be used to endorse or promote
@(#)    products derived from this software without specific prior
@(#)    written permission.
@(#)
@(#) THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY GEOFF KUENNING AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS
@(#) IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
@(#) LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
@(#) FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL GEOFF
@(#) KUENNING OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
@(#) INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
@(#) (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
@(#) SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
@(#) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT,
@(#) STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
@(#) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED
@(#) OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

ISPELL 3.1 vs ISPELL 4

Ispell 4 is not an updated version of Ispell 3.1. This causes much
confusion, particularly when flyspell tells you that it requires
Ispell 3.1.12 or later. Ispell 4 and Ispell 3.1 are both descended
seperately from Ispell 3.0. Ispell 3.1 has multi language support,
and has become the more favoured of the two releases on Unix
platforms. Ispell 4 is now pretty much dead and Emacs 20.3 was the
last release of Emacs that contained support for it.

I hope that clears up any confusion you have.