Re: ispell gives "Wrong type argument: stringp, nil"

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 27.12.2005 um 07:55 schrieb Jeff D. Hamann:

> With ispell (3.2.02 from
> http://www.fsci.fuk.kindai.ac.jp/aftp/pub/ptex/utils/ ) yields,
>
> Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument stringp nil)
>   looking-at(nil)
>   ispell-get-word(nil)
>   ispell-word(nil nil nil)
>   call-interactively(ispell-word)

Here obviously the function looking-at() receives something bad:

        looking-at is a built-in function in `C source code'.
        (looking-at regexp)
        
        Return t if text after point matches regular expression regexp.
        This function modifies the match data that `match-beginning',
        `match-end' and `match-data' access; save and restore the match
        data if you want to preserve them.

Could be you did not set up ispell-dictionary, ispell-program-name, 
ispell-extra-args, or ispell-local-dictionary-alist in case 
ispell-dictionary-alist is not sufficient? Entries in it like

         ("british" "[A-Za-z]" "[^A-Za-z]" "[']" nil
          ("-B")
          nil iso-8859-1)

have at least regular expressions.

> and version 3.1.20 yields
>
>
> Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument stringp nil)
>   re-search-forward(nil 77 t)
>   ispell-get-line(1 77 133)
>   byte-code("b,HF Ç(B È \nÆÉ=§

Here something similiar takes place:

	re-search-forward is an interactive built-in function in `C source 
code'.
        (re-search-forward regexp &optional bound noerror count)
        
        Search forward from point for regular expression regexp.
        Set point to the end of the occurrence found, and return point.
        An optional second argument bounds the search; it is a buffer position.
        The match found must not extend after that position.
	Optional third argument, if t, means if fail just return nil (no 
error).
          If not nil and not t, move to limit of search and return nil.
	Optional fourth argument is repeat count--search for successive 
occurrences.
        See also the functions `match-beginning', `match-end', `match-string',
        and `replace-match'.

Again no regexp is supplied.


In general it's the line below 'Debugger entered' that has caused the 
Lisp error. The lines below this one just reflect the function calls 
before this final one. So in both cases it's the nil in place of a 
(regexp) string that causes the Lisp error.

--
Greetings

  Pete

From error to error, one discovers the entire truth.
                                                            -Sigmund 
Freud