Re: Problems with ispell/flyspell

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> On Wed, Dec 21, 2005 at 05:11:54PM -0500, Stefan Monnier wrote:
>> - when I start flyspell-mode, I tend to get an error of the form:
>> 
>> "Error: no word lists can be found for the language fr_CH"

> My first impression is that you are using aspell and fr_CH locale
> and did not explicitely select any dict (and have no aspell
> fr_CH dict available). What happens if you explicitely select
> a dict by means of ispell-change-dictionary?

Usually nothing, probably because post-command-hook has already been set
to nil.

>> - later on, while using flyspell, I get errors of the form
>> "wrong-argument-type, string, nil" because
>> in ispell-find-aspell-dictionaries, (assoc "en" ispell-dictionary-alist)
>> has returned nil, which caused ispell-dictionary-alist to have an entry of
>> the form (nil), so when ispell-current-dictionary is nil,
>> (ispell-get-decoded-string 1) returns nil, so ispell-get-casechars returns
>> nil, so flyspell-get-casechars returns nil, so flyspell-get-word
>> does a (looking-at nil) which signals an error.

> and also have no aspell english dict installed. Probably a reasonable
> fallback should be added for default in case an english dict is not
> available.  Does the problem persist if you have an aspell english dict
> installed?

No, that fixed it.  So it seems the problem showed up because Debian split
the English dict into a separate package which `apt-get upgrade'
didn't install.

But, yes, there should be a better fallback in case there's no English
dictionary.  An option maybe is to just use the fallback that's already
there: the first entry in ispell-dictionary-alist-1.

>> This is on a machine where I have both ispell and aspell installed
>> (as I just discovered), in case it matters.
> Which one is the surprise?

Neither: the surprise is that *both* are installed.


        Stefan