Spell

Spell(s) or The Spell(s) may refer to:

Literature

Music

Painting

Spell (Unix)

Spell is the standard English language spell checker for Unix.

Appearing in Version 7 Unix,spell was originally written by Stephen C. Johnson of Bell Labs in 1975. Douglas McIlroy later improved its accuracy, performance, and memory use, and described his work and spell in general in his 1982 paper "Development of a Spelling list".

Spell has a simple command-line interface: It goes over all the words in a given text file, and prints a sorted list of unique misspelled words in that file. It does not provide any interface for looking for those words in the file, or helping to correct the mistakes. In 1983, a different spell-checker, ispell (the interactive spell-checker), was ported to Unix. ispell had a user interface for showing the spelling mistakes in context and suggesting how to correct them. Since then, the original Spell tool has been mostly considered obsolete.

Another reason Spell is considered obsolete is that it only supports the English language. Modern spell-checkers for Unix and Linux systems, such as aspell, MySpell and hunspell, support a multitude of different languages and character sets. The Single Unix Specification has officially declared Spell a "legacy application", stating that this was done "because there is no known technology that can be used to make it recognise general language for user-specified input without providing a complete dictionary along with the input file." Nevertheless, the Single Unix Specification does not standardize any other spell-checking utility to take Spell's place.

Spell (paranormal)

A spell, charm or hex is a set of words, spoken or unspoken, which are considered by its user to invoke some magical effect. Historical attestations exist for the use of some variety of incantations in many cultures around the world. Binding a person with a spell by the use of spoken word formulas is known as an incantation, and involves the use of evocation.

Historical spells

Surviving written records of whole magic spells were largely obliterated in many cultures by the success of the major monotheistic religions, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, which label some magic activity as immoral or associated with evil. Spells would generally be distinguished from magic symbols, words, patterns, recipes, practices and other forms of magic that were not directly exercised by a collection of words. However, some spells were combinations or repetitions of words that were considered to have magic power, but which were not in sentences or verse.

Europe

Surviving examples from northern Europe include For a Swarm of Bees, the Nine Herbs Charm and the Merseburg Incantations.

Safe

A safe (also called a strongbox or coffer) is a secure lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft and/or damage from fire. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face being removable or hinged to form a door. The body and door may be cast from metal (such as steel) or formed out of plastic through blow molding. Bank teller safes typically are secured to the counter, have a slit opening for dropping valuables into the safe without opening it, and a time-delay combination lock to foil robbers. One significant distinction between types of safes is whether the safe is secured to a wall or structure or if it can be moved around. A less secure version (only suitable for petty cash) is usually called a cash-box.

History

In 1835, English inventors Charles Chubb and Jeremiah Chubb in Wolverhampton, England, received a patent for a burglar-resisting safe and began a production of safes. The Chubb brothers had produced locks since 1818. Chubb Locks was an independent company until 2000 when it was sold to Assa Abloy.

Safe (EP)

Safe is the second EP by Kittie, a Canadian heavy metal all-women band from London, Ontario. It was released in 2002. It is dedicated "In Loving Memory of Dave Williams". The EP sold 25,000 units in the United States. It received very little promotion, only appearing on 2 major rock/heavy metal magazines.

Track listing

References

Al-Safa and Al-Marwah

Al-Safa and Al-Marwah (Safa and Marwah) (Arabic: الصفا‎ Aṣ-Ṣafā, المروة al-Marwah) are two small hills now located in the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia between which Muslims travel back and forth seven times during the ritual pilgrimages of Hajj and Umrah.

History

In Islamic tradition, Ibrahim (Abraham) was commanded by God to leave his wife Hajar (Hagar) and their infant son alone in the desert between Al-Safa and Al-Marwah with only basic provisions to test their faith. When their provisions were exhausted, Hagar went in search of help or water. To make her search easier and faster, she went alone, leaving the infant Ismail (Ishmael) on the ground.

She first climbed the nearest hill, Al-Safa, to look over the surrounding area. When she saw nothing, she then went to the other hill, Al-Marwah, to look around. While Hagar was on either hillside, she was able to see Ismael and know he was safe. However, when she was in the valley between the hills she was unable to see her son, and would thus run whilst in the valley and walk at a normal pace when on the hillsides. Hagar travelled back and forth between the hills seven times in the scorching heat before returning to her son. When she arrived, she found that a spring had broken forth from where the Angel Jibreel hit the ground with his wing. This spring is now known as the Zamzam Well, and was revealed by the angel of God as both sustenance and a reward for Hagar's patience.