Signal-desktop: Typo.js's spellcheck dictionary has large omissions of common words.

[phoenix-meadowlark]

• [X ] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

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Bug Description

This is not a bug.

Platform Info

Signal Version: Signal Desktop v1.32.1
Operating System: MacOS Catalina

Description

The spellchecking for Signal Desktop was switched to Typo.js in this commit. The dictionary that Typo.js uses omits a large number of commonly used words. Since adding words to one's dictionary isn't currently a feature in Signal Desktop, this means that the spellcheck can be quite frustrating to use.

For example, these are a few commonly used words that should be included in a spellcheck that currently aren't:

anime, cardio, demisexual, divorcee, dodgy, dystopian, emoji, etude, facepalm, fandom, genomic, godspeed, google, healthcare, inbox, indie, internet, intersex, java, javascript, landline, lol, longhouse, macadamia, mage, medicare, metadata, multipart, multiplayer, multitask, nickle, onboard, online, orc, org, paintball, paleo, playlist, poly, polyamory, prokaryote, quesadilla, resample, reverb, scammer, scratchpad, screensaver, screenshot, shiitake, showtime, slippy, smartphone, soulmate, spellcheck, spyware, tailbone, teleport, terabyte, texted, texting, toolbar, transgender, vape, veganism, waterboard, webcam, whiteboard, whitelist, wiki, ...

The technology ones (online, inbox, emoji, texting, internet, ...) are probably some of the most annoying, and as it is minority language is disparately excluded from the dictionary (e.g. transgender, intersex, and others I haven't included here).

Since this is ultimately a problem with Typo.js's dictionary and the lack of updates that it receives (the last one being 9 years ago), we could either try improving their dictionary, or finding an alternative library to depend on. Typo.js's repo appears to be largely inactive, so improving their dictionary might be difficult.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

Thanks for the report. We are working on a Typo.js replacement.