use chrome/electron's spell checker for comments and text documents

[OneOfOne]

• VSCode Version: 1.0.0
• OS Version: arch linux 64bit kernel 4.5

This is a feature request.

Currently the only spellchecker available is https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-spell-check, which is slow if you have a crappy connection, and is insecure.

chrome has already a built in spell-checker, is there any way to use that rather than that extension? or aspell?

[OneOfOne]

I hate to do this but bump?

I'd rather not use the spell-checker extension because:

1. it sends your data in plain text to the server.
2. well, it sends your data to the server.

[arashbehmand]

+1

[mckennapsean]

+1

As an update to the issue, vscode-spell-check was made secure (HTTPS) but is now unreliable due to issues with the underlying service (AfterTheDeadline).

I agree that an offline solution would be better and more ideal for sensitive text. I love to use vs-code with my markdown and pandoc files.

Another spell-checker extension is out there:
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=swyphcosmo.spellchecker

It uses hunspell in the background, but I had mixed results with it compared to my personal favorite aspell which catches the most errors for me.

[OneOfOne]

I completely understand Microsoft loves to send users' data to remote servers, but how is this feature request not a high priority?

@mckennapsean thank you for pointing that extension out!

[mckennapsean]

Glad to help!

I would say that spell-checking is something you can do with other tools, and most people program code with vs-code, not write novels or documents, which you can use other tools (like Word / Writer / Pages / Google Docs) for. If you are using vs-code to write, you can probably use command-line spell-checkers. But I agree that having this built-in, functional, and offline would be ideal - just you may not find all those features baked in but in an extension for now... perhaps time to write a new one!

[SommerEngineering]

@mckennapsean Many students and scientists using LaTeX. There is a VS Code extension for LaTeX. It would be great to be able to write the own thesis in VS Code.

[mckennapsean]

Oh I totally agree @SommerEngineering - I am actually writing up my dissertation using pandoc and latexmk with the awesome tasks system built into the editor. My argument was that it may be a niche / less utilized feature than features relating more to code.

However, when it comes to Markdown, LaTeX, and even documentation, spelling is definitely a killer feature. I just think a good extension may come first, but time will tell. :)

[mjbvz]

Duplicate of #20266 (I know this issue is the older of the two, but #20266 has more upvotes and comments)