GNU bug report logs - #51843
Ispell personal dictionary breaks other dictionaries

Previous Next

To reply to this bug, email your comments to 51843 AT debbugs.gnu.org.

Toggle the display of automated, internal messages from the tracker.

Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Tor Kringeland <tor.a.s.kringeland <at> ntnu.no>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: Ispell personal dictionary breaks other dictionaries
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2021 14:50:01 +0100

Using e.g. `ispell' with an English dictionary and setting
`ispell-personal-dictionary' to, say, `/tmp/words.txt' will add new
words to this file when using this dictionary.  However, if I change the
dictionary to something else (like a Norwegian dictionary), I get the
following output

  Starting new Ispell process /usr/local/bin/aspell with english dictionary...done
  ispell-init-process: Error: Expected language "nn" but got "en".

when running `ispell-word' on a misspelled word.  By extension this
breaks `flyspell-mode'.  If I set `ispell-personal-dictionary' back to
nil, though, things works as usual.

For reference this happens on a build of Emacs 29 from 11 November using
`-Q' on macOS Catalina, though I remember having this problem for quite
some time.

Message #8 received at 51843 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Tor Kringeland <tor.a.s.kringeland <at> ntnu.no>
Cc: 51843 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#51843: Ispell personal dictionary breaks other dictionaries
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2021 16:31:14 +0200

> From: Tor Kringeland <tor.a.s.kringeland <at> ntnu.no>
> Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2021 14:50:01 +0100
> 
> Using e.g. `ispell' with an English dictionary and setting
> `ispell-personal-dictionary' to, say, `/tmp/words.txt' will add new
> words to this file when using this dictionary.  However, if I change the
> dictionary to something else (like a Norwegian dictionary), I get the
> following output
> 
>   Starting new Ispell process /usr/local/bin/aspell with english dictionary...done
>   ispell-init-process: Error: Expected language "nn" but got "en".
> 
> when running `ispell-word' on a misspelled word.  By extension this
> breaks `flyspell-mode'.  If I set `ispell-personal-dictionary' back to
> nil, though, things works as usual.
> 
> For reference this happens on a build of Emacs 29 from 11 November using
> `-Q' on macOS Catalina, though I remember having this problem for quite
> some time.

Isn't this the same problem with the LANG setting in the environment?

Message #11 received at 51843 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Tor Kringeland <tor.a.s.kringeland <at> ntnu.no>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 51843 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#51843: Ispell personal dictionary breaks other dictionaries
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2021 16:29:29 +0100

Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> writes:

> Isn't this the same problem with the LANG setting in the environment?

I don't think so.  The issues seems to be a disparity between the
language codes for the personal dictionary (you can only have a personal
dictionary for one language) and the main dictionary.  The header of
`/tmp/words.txt' is

  personal_ws-1.1 en 1

where the `en' refers to the language/dictionary and `1' refers to the
number of words in your personal dictionary.  If I initiate a personal
dictionary with, say, Norwegian, the header looks like

  personal_ws-1.1 nn 1

and I get the opposite problem (that it works for Norwegian but not
English).

I suspect the error comes from `ispell' feeding these two disparate
language codes to `aspell': it tries to combine two dictionaries for two
different languages and `aspell' complains.  But I'm not certain this is
the case, as I don't understand well the code in `ispell.el'.

A possible fix would be to have an `ispell-personal-dictionaries-alist'
in which one could specify different personal dictionaries for different
language codes/dictionaries, which would be a feature improvement.
Another fix would be for `ispell' to check for disparity in language
code of the current dictionary and the personal dictionary, and if there
is one, to not feed the personal dictionary into `ispell-program-name'.

Are you able to reproduce the issue?

(Sorry for re-sending, I forgot to CC the mailing list.)

Message #14 received at 51843 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Tor Kringeland <tor.a.s.kringeland <at> ntnu.no>
Cc: 51843 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#51843: Ispell personal dictionary breaks other dictionaries
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2021 18:10:22 +0200

[Please use Reply All to reply, so that the bug tracker gets a copy.]

> From: Tor Kringeland <tor.a.s.kringeland <at> ntnu.no>
> Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2021 16:28:04 +0100
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> writes:
> 
> > Isn't this the same problem with the LANG setting in the environment?
> 
> I don't think so.  The issues seems to be a disparity between the
> language codes for the personal dictionary (you can only have a personal
> dictionary for one language) and the main dictionary.  The header of
> `/tmp/words.txt' is
> 
>   personal_ws-1.1 en 1
> 
> where the `en' refers to the language/dictionary and `1' refers to the
> number of words in your personal dictionary.  If I initiate a personal
> dictionary with, say, Norwegian, the header looks like
> 
>   personal_ws-1.1 nn 1
> 
> and I get the opposite problem (that it works for Norwegian but not
> English).

How do you initiate the personal dictionary?

> I suspect the error comes from `ispell' feeding these two disparate
> language codes to `aspell': it tries to combine two dictionaries for two
> different languages and `aspell' complains.  But I'm not certain this is
> the case, as I don't understand well the code in `ispell.el'.

Does the same problem happen if you invoke Aspell from the shell,
passing it the Norwegian language and the personal dictionary for
English?

> A possible fix would be to have an `ispell-personal-dictionaries-alist'
> in which one could specify different personal dictionaries for different
> language codes/dictionaries, which would be a feature improvement.
> Another fix would be for `ispell' to check for disparity in language
> code of the current dictionary and the personal dictionary, and if there
> is one, to not feed the personal dictionary into `ispell-program-name'.
> 
> Are you able to reproduce the issue?

I don't use Aspell.  I use Hunspell, where this problem doesn't exist,
and where you can have a separate personal dictionary for each
language.

Message #17 received at 51843 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Tor Kringeland <tor.a.s.kringeland <at> ntnu.no>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 51843 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#51843: Ispell personal dictionary breaks other dictionaries
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2021 17:47:42 +0100

Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> writes:

> [Please use Reply All to reply, so that the bug tracker gets a copy.]
>
>> From: Tor Kringeland <tor.a.s.kringeland <at> ntnu.no>
>> Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2021 16:28:04 +0100
>> 
>> Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> writes:
>> 
>> > Isn't this the same problem with the LANG setting in the environment?
>> 
>> I don't think so.  The issues seems to be a disparity between the
>> language codes for the personal dictionary (you can only have a personal
>> dictionary for one language) and the main dictionary.  The header of
>> `/tmp/words.txt' is
>> 
>>   personal_ws-1.1 en 1
>> 
>> where the `en' refers to the language/dictionary and `1' refers to the
>> number of words in your personal dictionary.  If I initiate a personal
>> dictionary with, say, Norwegian, the header looks like
>> 
>>   personal_ws-1.1 nn 1
>> 
>> and I get the opposite problem (that it works for Norwegian but not
>> English).
>
> How do you initiate the personal dictionary?

By setting `ispell-personal-dictionary' to point at a non-existent file.
It then creates the file with the language code for the current
dictionary.

>> I suspect the error comes from `ispell' feeding these two disparate
>> language codes to `aspell': it tries to combine two dictionaries for two
>> different languages and `aspell' complains.  But I'm not certain this is
>> the case, as I don't understand well the code in `ispell.el'.
>
> Does the same problem happen if you invoke Aspell from the shell,
> passing it the Norwegian language and the personal dictionary for
> English?

Yes.  If `/tmp/words.txt' is

  personal_ws-1.1 en 1
  mysterious

running

  echo -n mystiks | aspell -a --lang=nn_NO -p /tmp/words.txt

outputs `Error: Expected language "nn" but got "en".' similar to the
error using `ispell' in Emacs.  Running the following similar command
with `hunspell'

  echo -n mystiks | hunspell -a -d nn_NO -p /tmp/words.txt

gives no complaints and suggests the word is a typo for `mystisk'.

One could argue that the behavior of `hunspell' is not the correct one
here, since we're using dictionaries of two different languages and it
could have yielded a warning at least.  But this has nothing to do with
Emacs.

But given that this is "undefined behavior" for spell checkers one can
use with `ispell', it would be good if Emacs could sanity check the
language code of the personal dictionary with that of the main one and
not include the former if there is a disparity --- or optionally being
able to set personal dictionaries for multiple language codes.

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.