Message-ID: <38E79AD5.18B4A06@pacificnet.net>
Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2000 12:09:09 -0700
From: Ralph Gesler <rgesler AT pacificnet DOT net>
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To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
CC: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: Ispell under emacs
References: <38E1B359 DOT 2345D461 AT pacificnet DOT net> <200003312321 DOT SAA07178 AT indy DOT delorie DOT com>
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Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> 
> > I recently upgraded my installed DJGPP package to the latest version
> > using the pick-list from delorie.com as the basic install. Additional
> > packages have been added including the latest version, I think, of
> > ispell (isp3120.zip and isp3120d.zip). Ispell appears to work well in a
> > dos box, but under emacs an error occurs.
> >
> >       Symbol function definition is void: Start-Process
> 
> What version of Emacs do you have?  The DJGPP port of Emacs 19.34
> doesn't support the Emacs built-in Ispell interface, but Emacs 20.5
> does.  This support is not part of the official Emacs distribution yet
> (it will be in version 21), so make sure you have installed the latest
> em2005b.zip distribution from the DJGPP sites on SimTel.NET, and make
> sure you have removed any older ispell.el and ispell.elc files.
> 

I believe that I do have the latestest version of Emacs (em2005.zip)
D/L'ed from Simtelnet. I completely removed my entire DJGPP directory,
an older, and D/L'ed and installed the latest version of DJGPP. Prior to
this time I did not have Emacs or Ispell installed.

> (The speller interface built into Emacs originally needed async
> subprocesses support, which DJGPP doesn't have; the error message you
> quote complains about the function that is used to start an async
> subprocess.  I used a stupid but effective trick to make Ispell work
> in the DJGPP version without async subprocesses.  If you want a reason
> for a good laugh, search the file ispell.el for "ispell-send-string",
> then look around that function to see how it works.)
> 

I tried a search for this string in ispell.el and found nothing. This is
likely where my problem lies. The order of events in installing the
latest version of DJGPP is as follows:
  1. Using the zip picker as a guide D/L'ed *.zip files from Simtelnet 
     encluding Emacs and unzipped using pkunzip with the -d option.

  2. At a later date D/L'ed and installed ispell (isp3120b.zip).

Is it possible that this sequence overwrote a version of ispell.el
installed with Emacs? The version that I currently have is given in the
comments at the file beginning as Update Version 2.37 June 1995. From
this I assume that the "stupid but effective trick" you used is not
included in this version. If that is the case where do I get a correct
version or dif file?  

> > I have tried to find in the emacs and/or ispell documentation  a clue to
> > the problem, but have had no success so far.
> 
> Did you look in the "MS-DOS" chapter in the Emacs on-line manual?  It
> clearly says that spelling doesn't work.  As I explained above, this
> is not true in the latest release, but at least the manual does
> mention this aspect of Emacs operation in the DJGPP version.

Yes, I had read this section, but did not think it applied since I was
using the latest version.

TIA

Ralph Gesler