[OS X Emacs] Check Spelling for English and Bulgarian in Aquamacs

Wed Jul 15 10:46:07 EDT 2020

Hi Roussanka and Win,
I wrote most of the elisp code to tie NSSpellChecker into the Emacs ispell
functionality. (Using C code by David Reitter.) I would be happy to look
into this at some point in the future, but I don't have time this summer.
How easy it would be (for me) to add your requested features depends on
which level of code needs updated. Anyway, keep me posted with issues,
fixes, requests, etc.

Nathaniel Cunningham

On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 9:34 AM Win Treese <treese at acm.org> wrote:

> Hi, Roussanka. I’m glad that the system is working better for you now.
>
> I’ll put the language question on the list for future work. At the moment
> I don’t know enough about the Apple spelling code to know what it would
> take to do that.
>
>  - Win
>
> > On Jul 14, 2020, at 4:18 PM, Roussanka Loukanova <rl.stpuu at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Win,
> >
> > A quick check: have you rebooted since uninstalling cocoAspell? Since it
> installs with a preference pane, it’s possible that a reboot would clean up
> some more after uninstalling it. If that works, great!
> >
> > I had done that, but it didn't help. I think uninstalling cocoAspell
> took away some of the settings of Aquamacs that I had. Here is what I did,
> thanks to your explanations, and solved the major problem for spelling
> English, and Swedish, to some degree.
> >
> > By default, Aquamacs uses the Mac OS spelling software, and it does so
> through the usual “ispell” interface code in Emacs.
> >
> > You can verify that you are using the Mac spelling system by looking at
> the value of ispell-program-name, which should be “NSSpellChecker”.  One
> way to see it through the menus is Edit->Spelling->Customize, and then
> looking for “Ispell Program Name” in the buffer that pops up.
> >
> > Yes, it is NSSpellChecker. Thanks! Without telling me this, I was
> confused about it, because I had expected Aspell.
> >
> > From what you described, that may not be the problem. As far as I know,
> the cocoAspell distribution is a bit old, and may not work correctly on
> Catalina. A quick google search didn’t find anyone talking about that. The
> problem you mentioned was installing dictionaries, and it seems likely that
> Catalina made it harder to do things like that.
> >
> > Yes, indeed.
> > If rebooting doesn’t help, and Aquamacs is set properly, then you could
> try typing in TextEdit to see if you see the same problem with bad
> suggestions.
> >
> > This is a good test, which I had tried, but it didn't help me with what
> Aquamacs.
> >
> > The languages use for the checking are set for the Mac (which then apply
> to Aquamacs) in the System Preferences->Keyboard->Text pane.
> >
> > Now, after already knowing that NSSpellChecker is the right
> ispell-program-name, I've solved the major problem for spelling English
> text with it. But there are issues that puzzle me. Here is what I did:
> >
> > In System Preferences->Keyboard->Text pane:
> > I had in the pull-down menu:
> >  Spelling: Automatic by Language
> > But, by opening any file in Aquamacs, even only with English text and
> with misspelled words for tests, I had:
> >
> > - misspelled words underlined
> > - "Esc $" didn't give good suggestions, and, often, gave no suggestions
> >
> > That was because despite selecting Spelling: Automatic by Language,  the
> default language was all the time with Swedish, by looking at the top bar
> of Aquamacs:
> > ... dict: sv -- prog: NSSpellChecker
> >
> > Now, after your explanations, by knowing that NSSpellChecker is the
> correct program, I focussed on fixing the value dict: sv to en_GB, by:
> >
> > (1) selecting en_GB, from Aquamacs' menu:
> > Edit > Spelling > Change Dictionary...
> > but that set only the local dictionary to en_GB, and in a next session
> with Aquamacs, it still was dict: sv.
> >
> > (2) System Preferences->Keyboard->Text pane:
> > in the pull-down menu, I selected:
> >  Spelling: British English
> >
> > I quitted Aquamacs, rebooted the Mac, opened the same file with text in
> English and misspelled words, and spelling was fine, to my great relief!
> >
> > After that, I set:
> >
> > (3) System Preferences->Keyboard->Text pane:
> >  Spelling: Automatic by Language
> >
> > The dictionary is globally set to British Language.
> > I open a file having portions of English and Swedish texts, and
> misspelled words in both languages. All words get spell checked for British
> English. When I get to a misspelled word, and know that it's in Swedish, I
> can get it spelled by changing to Swedish dictionary sv, in two alternative
> ways:
> >
> > (a)
> > Edit > Spelling > Change Dictionary...
> > (b)
> > Edit > Spelling > Show Spelling Panel
> >
> > Each of these alternatives changes the spelling to Swedish, sv, or what
> I select, for the entire session, in case I do not change it again. But, at
> least, after Quit, Aquamacs keeps the en_GB, as the global dictionary, and
> it also keeps:
> >
> > System Preferences->Keyboard->Text pane:
> > Spelling: Automatic by Language
> >
> > For Automatic by Language, I'd expect that the program would recognise
> language dictionaries by words. There should be a pane to select several
> languages, i.e., dictionaries, for automatic look up through their
> dictionaries (at least, for the selected languages). Apple has the option
> Spelling: Automatic by Language.
> >
> > At least, this is my wish for a future Aquamacs. (This works very well
> in Gmail!)
> >
> > Finally, you could install the command line aspell program with
> Homebrew, and then customize ispell-program-name to use that.
> >
> > I'll see if I can dare that, because it seems more adventurous to me,
> and I do not want to get Aquamacs messed up, again, while I have work.
> >
> > It would be great if future Aquamacs has Aspell as an option, by some
> selections. So, for now, I have two wishes for Aquamacs.
> >
> > If you have some suggestions, esp. for Automatic by Language, it would
> be great. It's already great that you've helped with NSSpellChecker.
> >
> > Thank you very much!
> > Best Regards,
> > Roussanka
> >
> > - Win
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > On Jul 12, 2020, at 8:25 PM, Roussanka Loukanova <rl.stpuu at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear Win, Dear All,
> > >
> > > I hope you can help me to fix the Check Spelling in Aquamacs. Up to
> recent, it used to work excellently for English: with LaTeX, in plain text
> (.txt files), with html. I think I had it with Aspell, or with what it was
> by downloading and installing Aquamacs. I only set Fly mode, and few other
> things.
> > >
> > > I'm with:
> > >
> > > MacBook Air, 13" (2017)
> > > macOS Catalina, v.10.15.5
> > >
> > > Aquamacs 3.5
> > >
> > > The spell checking in Aquamacs has become messed up, i.e., worsened,
> after my attempts to get spelling for Bulgarian and Swedish, and in
> particular, by attempts to get that by cocoAspell.
> > >
> > > I downloaded, unpacked, and installed cocoAspell (by giving it
> permissions). But then the Spelling pane in System Preferences couldn't
> install any dictionaries, not even for English. I uninstalled cocoAspell,
> by the instructions on its website. After that Spell Checking has worsened
> in Aquamacs.
> > >
> > > Now, by random tests, I get misspelled words, underlined as
> misspelled, but with inappropriate suggestions, or without any choices.
> E.g., for "unsucsessful", with "Esc-$", the list of offered corrections is
> empty. I only get "C-h or ? for more options: ..."
> > >
> > > Before these attempts, I used to get good optional choices for
> misspelled words of English, with Fly Spell.
> > >
> > > Now, my questions are:
> > >
> > > (1) How to fix the spell checking for English?
> > > Perhaps Aquamacs came with GNU Aspell, and now it's with something
> else. The dictionary for EN is STANDARD:
> > > Edit > Spelling > Customize...
> > > Subgroups: FliSpell
> > > Flyspell Default Dictionary: Value Menu Default
> > >     State : STANDARD.
> > >
> > > (2) How to get Spell Checking for Bulgarian in Aquamacs?
> > >
> > > Here is what I've tried, without cocoAspell:
> > >
> > > I downloaded aspell6-bg-4.1-0.tar.bz2 from:
> > > https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/aspell/dict/0index.html
> > >
> > > I unzipped and tried installation of the dictionary (aspell6-bg-4.1-0)
> from the Terminal:
> > >
> > > - by instructions inside aspell6-bg-4.1-0/README:
> > >
> > > $ ./configure
> > > Finding Dictionary file location ... /usr/local/lib/aspell-0.60
> > > Finding Data file location ... /usr/local/lib/aspell-0.60
> > >
> > > After that, I get the following error, which I do not know how to fix:
> > >
> > > $ make
> > > xcrun: error: invalid active developer path
> (/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools), missing xcrun at:
> /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/xcrun
> > >
> > > Spell Checking and Grammar works in some of the applications:
> > >
> > > - Gmail (I'm especially pleased, as of now)
> > > - MS Word: even if I have very limited experence  with MS, I could
> easily check the Help menue how to do it.
> > >
> > > (3) After I fix (1)-(2), I would like to have Aquamacs with spell
> checking Swedish (Svenska).
> > >
> > > Best Regards,
> > > Roussanka
> > >
> > >
> > >
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