Path: utzoo!telly!moore!ziebmef!becker!geac!jtsv16!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ASYLUM.GSFC.NASA.GOV!chris
From: chris@ASYLUM.GSFC.NASA.GOV (Chris Shenton)
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs
Subject: ispell questions -- syntax tables, my words file, et al
Message-ID: <8910181956.AA04222@asylum.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Date: 18 Oct 89 19:56:20 GMT
Distribution: gnu
Organization: GNUs Not Usenet
Lines: 72

I'm a recent convert to ispell, and now couldn't live without it. A few
questions, though -- the easy ones (?) first:


1. Capitalization in prompt

The offending word is capitalized in the mode-line prompt. Given ispell's
ability to distinguish case, this seems counter-productive/intuitive.


2. Second invocation of ispell doesn't seem to look at my words file

Works fine the first time (except for below), but the second time through
it doesn't seem to know my words. For example, it doesn't find my name.


3. Can't find <word> in original text -- Any key to continue

I sometimes get the above message, even though a simple search locates it.
This, however, may be a symptom of my messing around with the following
problem. 


4. Syntax table modifications 

Trying to use apostrophe (') and dash (-) as word chars for hyphenations, etc.
At best, it doesn't seem to acknowledge -- apostrophies, for example -- as word
chars (sees "didn" but not "didn't"); at worst, it seems to get lost,
complaining "Can't find <word> in orinal text -- Any key to continue"

I autoload ispell in my .emacs file, so when I modify the syntax table there,
is it trashed by the (defvar ispell-syntax-table) when the autoload is
activated? If not, then do I have to put the entire table initialization (0, 1,
..., 9, etc) in my .emacs?  I guess what I'd like/expect is an ispell-hook,
where I could just put
	(modify-syntax-entry ?' "w   " ispell-syntax-table)
	(modify-syntax-entry ?- "w " ispell-syntax-table) as per the
documentation in ispell.el. The alternative seems to be normal (*not* auto)
loading ispell initially, or duplication of effort in .emacs. And I'd prefer
not to modify ispell.el itself...

Below is the relevant portion of my .emacs, ripped off from ispell.el:

    (defvar ispell-syntax-table nil
      "*Syntax table used by ispell to find word boundaries.  You may change syntax
    entries to, say, allow ' and - to be part of words, or not, as you prefer.")

    (if (null ispell-syntax-table)
	(progn
	  (setq ispell-syntax-table (make-syntax-table))
	  (modify-syntax-entry ?' "w   " ispell-syntax-table)
	  (modify-syntax-entry ?- "w   " ispell-syntax-table)))

If ispell does not overwrite the table I just created, I assume that the other
table modifications are not applied either because of the test at the top of
the expression; from ispell.el:

    (if (null ispell-syntax-table)
	;; The following assumes that the standard-syntax-table
	;; is static.  If you add words with funky characters
	;; to your dictionary, the following may have to change.
	(progn
	  (setq ispell-syntax-table (make-syntax-table))
	  ;; Make certain characters word constituents
	  ;; (modify-syntax-entry ?' "w   " ispell-syntax-table)
	  ;; (modify-syntax-entry ?- "w   " ispell-syntax-table)
	  ;; Get rid on existing word syntax on certain characters 
	  (modify-syntax-entry ?0 ".   " ispell-syntax-table)
	  ...
	  (modify-syntax-entry ?9 ".   " ispell-syntax-table)
	  (modify-syntax-entry ?$ ".   " ispell-syntax-table)
	  (modify-syntax-entry ?% ".   " ispell-syntax-table)))