Re: turn on flyspell mode permanently in .emacs

[Kevin Rodgers]

kevmitch@gmail.com wrote:
> Thanks for the advice. It would seem however that neither suggestion
> worked. I took a look in my Messages buffer and found that it looks
> like flyspell is in fact starting using the .emacs file above, but that
> it just isn't taking effect for some reason.

As I explained, you have turned it on in the *scratch* buffer only.

> This remains to be the
> case if I try the lambda function suggested by Kevin.

I'm not too surprised that didn't work -- it's quite a heavy-handed
hack.

> However, using
> the text-mode-hook without  (flyspell-mode 1) doesn't turn it on at
> all.

Uh, of course not.

What buffer is current when you check whether flyspell mode is on
or not?  What is that buffer's major mode?

> Here is my message buffer with the same .emacs file.  It looks like
> flyspell loads fine at the end, but unfortunately seems to have no
> effect.

In what buffer?  The *scratch* buffer should have flyspell mode turned
on after your ~/.emacs file is loaded.

> Oddly enough, when I manually turn on flyspell-mode after
> starting emacs with the (flyspell-mode 1) in my .emacs file, nothing
> further is added to the message buffer (whereas it would be if I hadn't
> already started flyspell-mode in the .emacs file).

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.)

> In spite of this
> message silence, flyspell-mode does seem to magically start working.
>
> Loading 50a2ps (source)...
> Loading a2ps-print...done
> Loading 50a2ps (source)...done
> Loading 50auctex (source)...
> Loading auctex.el (source)...
> Loading /usr/share/emacs/21.4/site-lisp/tex-site.el (source)...done
> Loading auctex.el (source)...done
> Loading preview-latex.el (source)...done
> Loading 50auctex (source)...done
> Loading 50autoconf (source)...done
> Loading 50devhelp (source)...done
> Loading 50dictionaries-common (source)...
> Loading debian-ispell...
> Loading /var/cache/dictionaries-common/emacsen-ispell-default.el
> (source)...done
> Loading debian-ispell...done
> Loading /var/cache/dictionaries-common/emacsen-ispell-dicts.el
> (source)...done
> Loading 50dictionaries-common (source)...done
> Loading 50emacs-goodies-el (source)...done
> Loading 50emacs-intl-fonts (source)...done
> Loading 50ess (source)...
> Loading regexp-opt...done
> Loading mule-util...done
> Loading ange-ftp...done
> Loading 50ess (source)...done
> Loading 50festival (source)...done
> Loading 50ftnchek (source)...done
> Loading 50gettext (source)...done
> Loading 50gnuplot-mode (source)...done
> Loading 50gri-el (source)...done
> Loading 50gri-html-doc (source)...done
> Loading 50maxima-emacs (source)...done
> Loading 50nowebm (source)...done
> Loading 50octave (source)...done
> Loading 50octave2.1-emacsen (source)...done
> Loading 50post-el (source)...done
> Loading 50preview-latex (source)...done
> Loading 50psgml-init (source)...done
> Loading 50pymacs (source)...done
> Loading 50pymacs-elisp (source)...done
> Loading 50python-mode (source)...done
> Loading 51preview-latex (source)...done
> Loading paren...done
> Loading jka-compr...done
> Loading flyspell...
> Loading advice...done
> Loading flyspell...done
> (Next local Ispell command will use british dictionary) [2 times]
> Starting new Ispell process...
> ispell.el is already loaded
> For information about the GNU Project and its goals, type C-h C-p.

I'm surprised it doesn't say "Flyspell mode enabled" somewhere after
"Loading flyspell...done".

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)))

--
Kevin