ispell 3.3.02 uploaded to experimental

[Martin-Éric Racine]

2011/3/13 Robert Luberda <robert at debian.org>:
> Hi
>
> I uploaded new, but already 6 years old, upstream version of ispell to
> experimental yesterday. Your package either provides ispell-dictionary,
> or  depends/recommends/suggests/build-depends on ispell, and I'd be glad
> if you could spend some time to check if the new version works with your
> package.
>
> The dictionaries generated by old version of ispell are not compatible
> with the new one, thus all ispell-dictionaries need to be rebuild. If
> you are a maintainer of such a dictionary package, please check whether
> the dictionary rebuilds fine with the new ispell. If your dictionary
> package doesn't use the ispell-autobuildhash method, it will need to be
> re-uploaded (with Build-Depends and Depends set to ispell >= 3.3.02)
> when new ispell hits unstable.
>
> I'm thinking of uploading the new version to unstable in a week or two
> (i.e. 20th or 26th of March). Please report any issues through BTS.

At the risk of sounding silly, I really have to ask:

Why does Debian even bother with ispell anymore, considering that
almost everything out there has been converted to use aspell or
myspell instead of ispell, plus the FSF considers aspell as the only
GNU -supported spell checker?

Martin-Éric