Re: turn on flyspell mode permanently in .emacs

[Kevin Rodgers <ihs_4664@yahoo.com>]

kevmitch@gmail.com wrote:
>> In what buffer?  The *scratch* buffer should have flyspell mode turned
>> on after your ~/.emacs file is loaded.
> It appears that even with (flyspell-mode 1) in the top level of the
> .emacs file
> flyspell mode is not on in any buffer; not even the scratch buffer.

That is a puzzle.

>> How do you manually turn on flyspell-mode?  (M-x flyspell-mode in a
>> buffer where it's already turned on will actually toggle it i.e. turn
>> it off.  You need to specify a prefix arg: C-u M-x flyspell-mode.)
> yeah, I just use M-x flyspell-mode to turn it on which suggests that it
> really isn't on  prior to this.

Yes.

>> I'm surprised it doesn't say "Flyspell mode enabled" somewhere after
>> "Loading flyspell...done".
> This is a good point.
> 
>> Your best bet is to get rid of (flyspell-mode 1) at the top level of
>> your ~/.emacs file, because we know it won't do what you asked for, and
>> to follow Sebastien's advice:
>>
>> (add-hook 'text-mode-hook
>> 	  (lambda () (flyspell-mode 1)))
> Ok, I hadn't tried exactly that. You'll have to bear with me. This lisp
> stuff is rather obtuse to the beginner. Unfortunately, this doesn't
> have the desired behavior either. It does however turn on flyspell in
> the scratch buffer if I enter the command "M-x text-mode".

Naturally: the *scratch* buffer is Lisp Interaction mode by default,
not Text mode.

As Sebastien explained, text-mode-hook is also run by *many* other
text-oriented modes (Mail mode, SGML mode, etc.)

> I can also
> get it to turn on automatically if I open a .m file (which puts emacs
> in matlab-mode) if I have the following lines in my .emacs file:
> 
> (add-hook 'matlab-mode-hook
>  	  (lambda () (flyspell-mode 1)))
> 
> So that's something.

You might want to try (flyspell-prog-mode) there instead.

> To keep things simple, I have otherwise been opening the .emacs file,
> which puts me in a buffer titled .emacs, but the exact name of the mode
> seems to be trickier. I get a pulldown menu titled  Emacs-Lisp, which
> might suggest that I'm in Emacs-Lisp-mode. However M-x Emacs-Lisp-mode
> returns no match.

,----[ C-h v major-mode RET ]
| major-mode is a variable defined in `C source code'.
| Its value is emacs-lisp-mode
| Local in buffer .emacs; global value is fundamental-mode
| Automatically becomes buffer-local when set in any fashion.
|
| Documentation:
| Symbol for current buffer's major mode.
|
| [back]
`----

> I guess this is really beside the issue, because I
> don't want to have to worry about what mode I'm in. I just want
> flyspell to be on all the time. Is it just wishful thinking that there
> might be an any-mode-hook?

Yes, that is wishful thinking.  The closest thing is change-major-mode-hook,
but you reported that my hack that used it didn't actually work.

> Thanks for taking the time to think about this.

You're welcome!

-- 
Kevin