Re: ispell select Emacs dictionary on Debian

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> Date: Sun, 01 Aug 2021 02:26:16 +0200
> From:  Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor <help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
> 
> Felix Dietrich wrote:
> 
> > “emacsen-ispell-dicts.el” is only read at start-up [2].
> > If you install a new dictionary, an already running Emacs
> > will not know about it.
> 
> Same with restart.
> 
> > You may try to reinitialise the dictionary with the
> > following snippet:
> >
> >     (progn
> >       (setq debian-ispell-only-dictionary-alist nil
> >     	debian-aspell-only-dictionary-alist nil
> >     	debian-hunspell-only-dictionary-alist nil
> >     	ispell-dictionary-alist nil)
> >       (load-file "/var/cache/dictionaries-common/emacsen-ispell-dicts.el")
> >       ;; There is a setter associated with ‘ispell-program-name’ which
> >       ;; calls ‘ispell-set-spellchecker-params’.  Calling this function
> >       ;; directly does not work; I don't understand why.
> >       (setq ispell-program-name "ispell"))
> 
> That file,
> /var/cache/dictionaries-common/emacsen-ispell-dicts.el, has as
> its last line
> 
>   (setq debian-hunspell-dictionary (debian-ispell-get-hunspell-default))
> 
> but the function "debian-ispell-get-hunspell-default"
> is undefined.
> 
> Anyway same.
> 
> > For testing purposes, start Emacs with the “-q”
> > (“--no-init-file”) switch. Do the dictionaries show up then
> > in the dialog of ‘ispell-change-dictionary’?
> 
> A lot of dictionaries show up with -q! No idea why, and
> interestingly, american-insane and the other installed do not.
> 
> > Do you use a custom built Emacs or the Debian package?
> 
> It is installed from source!
> 
> >> PS. The Swedish dictionary doesn't work either. It saysff
> >>     "ispell-init-process: Illegal format hash table
> >>     /usr/lib/ispell/svenska.hash - expected magic2 0x9602,
> >>     got 0x414c"
> >
> > Does not work for me either. Seems like a bug. Please report
> > it. Meanwhile, try recreating the .hash file manually
> > (requires the wswedish package):
> >
> >     buildhash /usr/share/dict/svenska /usr/lib/ispell/svenska.aff \
> >         /usr/lib/ispell/svenska.hash
> 
> That works! Cool!
> 
> A bug where, in Debian's wswedish?

I wonder why people still insist on using ispell (the program), when
hunspell and aspell are widely available, provide better
spell-checking in more languages, and detect the installed
dictionaries automatically instead of requiring complicated manual
sertup?