Index: openacs-4/packages/acs-tcl/tcl/utilities-procs.tcl
===================================================================
RCS file: /usr/local/cvsroot/openacs-4/packages/acs-tcl/tcl/utilities-procs.tcl,v
diff -u -r1.102 -r1.103
--- openacs-4/packages/acs-tcl/tcl/utilities-procs.tcl	21 Nov 2007 14:08:44 -0000	1.102
+++ openacs-4/packages/acs-tcl/tcl/utilities-procs.tcl	20 Jan 2008 19:31:37 -0000	1.103
@@ -4404,3 +4404,30 @@
 } {
 	return [regexp {[<>:\"|/@\#%&+\\ ]} $s1]
 }
+
+ad_proc -public util::which {prog} {
+
+  @author Gustaf Neumann
+
+  Use environment variable PATH to search for the specified executable
+  program. Replacement for UNIX command "which", avoiding exec.
+
+    exec which:    3368.445 microseconds per iteration
+    ::util::which:  282.372 microseconds per iteration
+  
+  In addition of being more than 10 time faster than the 
+  version via exec, this version is less platform dependent.
+
+  @param prog   name of the program to be located on the search path
+  @return fully qualified name including path, when specified program is found, 
+                or otherwise empty string
+
+} {
+  foreach p [split $::env(PATH) :] {
+    set fullname [file join $p $prog]
+    if {[file executable $fullname]} {
+      return $fullname
+    }
+  }
+  return ""
+}
Index: openacs-4/packages/acs-templating/tcl/spellcheck-init.tcl
===================================================================
RCS file: /usr/local/cvsroot/openacs-4/packages/acs-templating/tcl/spellcheck-init.tcl,v
diff -u -r1.14 -r1.15
--- openacs-4/packages/acs-templating/tcl/spellcheck-init.tcl	19 Jan 2008 20:36:33 -0000	1.14
+++ openacs-4/packages/acs-templating/tcl/spellcheck-init.tcl	20 Jan 2008 19:31:37 -0000	1.15
@@ -9,24 +9,10 @@
 }
 
 # Find the aspell or, second best, the ispell binary.
-# In case neither one is found, spell-checking will be disabled.
-
-# DRB: The original code here apparently was written under the delusion
-# that using "catch" to guard calls to "exec" would allow one to safely use
-# the same "exec" elsewhere in the same command, as though Tcl does short-circuit
-# evaluation of exprs.  I only mention this in case someone sees the clever (but wrong)
-# code and decides they want to replace my fix with the clever (but wrong) version ...
-
-# DRB: And to top it off, OS/X (all BSD?) "which" doesn't return an error, just an
-# error string, if the file doesn't exist, making the check even more fun to run.
-
-expr { ![catch {exec which aspell}] && ![string match "*no aspell*" [exec which aspell]] }
-if { ![catch {exec which aspell}] && ![string match "*no aspell*" [exec which aspell]] } {
-    set bin [exec which aspell]
-} elseif { ![catch {exec which ispell}] && ![string match "*no ispell*" [exec which ispell]] } {
-    set bin [exec which ispell]
-} else {
-    set bin ""
+# In case neither one is found, bin is empty and spell-checking will be disabled.
+set bin [::util::which aspell]
+if {$bin eq ""} {
+  set bin [::util::which ispell]
 }
 
 # Do we want dialect dictionaries (if available) or not?
@@ -40,7 +26,7 @@
 # aspell or ispell?
 set dicts ""
 set default_lang ""
-if { [regexp aspell $bin] } {
+if { [string match "*aspell" $bin] } {
     # aspell
     with_catch errmsg {
         set dicts [exec $bin dump dicts]
@@ -55,7 +41,7 @@
         ns_log Warning "Gettings dicts and default_lang for aspell failed with error message: \"$errmsg\""
 	ns_log Notice "You might want to upgrade to a more recent version of Aspell ... http://aspell.sourceforge.net/"
     }
-} elseif { [regexp ispell $bin] } {
+} elseif { [string match "*ispell" $bin] } {
     # ispell - if someone knows how to get the available dictionaries and the
     # default language from ispell, please add it here :-)
     set dicts ""