Do you need to compile pspell with PHP (apache module) and PHP-cli or only one of the two?
Also Avi, your compiling issues are only for Mac OSX or on any system?
I only have issues compiling PHP with aspell on MacOS X. Both the Apache module and the PHP-cli version need aspell support, as its used for both the WYSIWYG editor and the Thesaurus asset (AFAIK).
I wouldnt have thought that Thesaurus uses spell checking. Can someone confirm this please.
I'd start with the Apache module though - that will at least get content spell checking working.
I think it might use it for pspell_suggest?
Thesaurus doesn't use it. Search will in the next beta version (3.5) for search term suggestions (as Marcus eluded to), but not the current 3.4.