company-capf cannot find aspell dictionaries

[Panadestein]

Hello, as the title mentions, I am not able anymore to use spell checking correctly with company-capf, after my recent Emacs update.

Output of M-x company-diag:

Emacs 30.0.50 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) of 2023-12-05 on nil
Company 0.10.2

company-backends: (company-bbdb company-semantic company-cmake company-capf
	      company-clang company-files
	      (company-dabbrev-code company-gtags company-etags
				    company-keywords)
	      company-oddmuse company-dabbrev)

Used backend: company-dabbrev

Major mode: org-mode
Prefix: ""

Completions:
  "title"
  "interpreter"
  "general"
  "comments"
  "will"
  "build"
  "called"
  "that"
  "supports"
  "gates"
  "measurements"
  "quantum"
  "transmuted"
  "into"
  "single"
  "linear"
  "operator"
  "acts"
  "hilbert"
  "space"
  "wave"
  "function"
  "language"
  "have"
  "lisp"
  "like"
  "syntax"
  "common"
  "array"
  "code"
  "programming"
  "model"
  "abstract"
  "machine"
  "qubits"
  "whose"
  "state"
  "given"
  "measurement"
  "register"
  "consider"
  "mathcal"
  "begin"
  "lisp"
  "tangle"
  "defstruct"
  "results"
  "machine"
  "remaining"
  "discussion"
  "assumes"
  "basic"
  "mechanics"
  "background"
  "let's"
  "define"
  "qubit"
  "defun"
  "make"
  "expt"
  "initial"
  "element"
  "setf"
  "aref"
  "make"
  "quantum"
  "state"
  "above"
  "return"
  "ldots"
  "rangle"
  "coefficient"
  "indicating"
  "this"
  "only"
  "contribution"
  "next"
  "retrieve"
  "number"
  "size"
  "this"
  "amounts"
  "compute"
  "binary"
  "logarithm"
  "bits"
  "representation"
  "dimension"
  "integer"
  "length"
  "dimension"
  "qubits"
  "propagation"
  "system"
  "then"
  "implemented"
  "using"
  "algebra"
  "operations"
  "apply"
  "unitary"
  "oper"
  "dotimes"
  "incf"
  "replace"
  "apply"
  "operator"
  "compose"
  "left"
  "right"
  "list"
  "prod"
  "compose"
  "provided"
  "machinery"
  "proceed"
  "implement"
  "again"
  "domain"
  "knowledge"
  "needed"
  "here"
  "particular"
  "regarding"
  "collapse"
  "observe"
  "sample"
  "observe"
  "code"
  "collapsed"
  "saved"
  "automatically"
  "generated"
  "accessor"
  "next"
  "section"
  "more"
  "interesting"
  "deals"
  "with"
  "sampling"
  "process"
  "statistical"
  "terms"
  "want"
  "discrete"
  "random"
  "variable"
  "equation"
  "text"
  "uniform"
  "leverage"
  "equations"
  "follows"
  "decf"
  "when"
  "minusp"
  "sample"
  "implies"
  "realization"
  "fill"
  "collapse"
  "some"
  "start"
  "identity"
  "defparameter"
  "gate"
  "then"
  "generic"
  "assert"
  "%apply"
  "singleq"
  "first"
  "multiq"
  "gate"
  "need"
  "implementation"
  "kronecker"
  "product"
  "generating"
  "multi"
  "kronecker"
  "destructuring"
  "bind"
  "dimensions"
  "kron"
  "pointer"
  "kronecker"
  "product"
  "focus"
  "generate"
  "action"
  "continuous"
  "range"
  "achieved"
  "following"
  "lift"
  "otimes"
  "where"
  "covers"
  "factors"
  "second"
  "cond"
  "expt"
  "with"
  "definition"
  "lift"
  "note"
  "accounts"
  "multiple"
  "adjacent"
  "multiple"
  "gates'"
  "actions"
  "trickier"
  "handle"
  "idea"
  "permutation"
  "matrix"
  "temporarily"
  "restores"
  "order"
  "swap"
  "which"
  "exchanges"
  "states"
  "using"
  "fact"
  "permutations"
  "decomposed"
  "transpositions"
  "form"
  "cons"
  "cells"
  "required"
  "perm"
  "trans"
  "natural"
  "nreverse"
  "permuted"
  "loop"
  "while"
  "push"
  "please"
  "note"
  "indicates"
  "index"
  "rearranged"
  "itself"
  "correspondence"
  "cauchy's"
  "line"
  "notation"
  "tricky"
  "times"
  "here"
  "what"
  "doing"
  "through"
  "each"
  "target"
  "larger"
  "than"
  "case"
  "directly"
  "transposition"
  "smaller"
  "original"
  "tutorial"
  "used"
  "clause"
  "avoid"
  "pushing"
  "swap"
  "streamlined"
  "home"
  "loren"
  "documents"
  "arbeit"
  "interp"
  "drwxr"
  "images"
  "readme"

Describe the issue

I get the error presented below in tdoe every time I press a key in text mode.

Expected behavior

I expect the completion suggestions to appear as before.

tdoe

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (error "ispell-lookup-words: No plain word-list found at systemdefault locations.  Customize ‘ispell-alternate-dictionary’ to set yours.")
  error("ispell-lookup-words: No plain word-list found at systemdefault locations.  Customize `ispell-alternate-dictionary' to set yours.")
  ispell-lookup-words("df")
  ispell-completion-at-point()
  completion--capf-wrapper(ispell-completion-at-point optimist)
  company--capf-wrapper(ispell-completion-at-point optimist)
  company--capf-data-real()
  company--capf-data()
  company-capf(prefix)
  apply(company-capf prefix)
  company-call-backend-raw(prefix)
  company--force-sync(company-call-backend-raw (prefix) company-capf)
  company-call-backend(prefix)
  company--begin-new()
  company--perform()
  company-auto-begin()
  company-idle-begin(#<buffer clq.org> #<window 3 on clq.org> 3713 8350)
  apply(company-idle-begin (#<buffer clq.org> #<window 3 on clq.org> 3713 8350))
  timer-event-handler([t 25967 33415 719988 nil company-idle-begin (#<buffer clq.org> #<window 3 on clq.org> 3713 8350) nil 721000 nil])
  sit-for(3)
  flyspell-check-word-p()
  flyspell-post-command-hook()

Additional context

I am on NixOS unstable.

[dgutov]

Hi!

This error is caused by a change in upstream: emacs-mirror/emacs@47e313e9805

That is, text-mode and all modes deriving from it that don't opt out, now have a completion function based on ispell.

Looks like you don't have a dictionary installed, so that's why it errors. Which might be a good cause for a bug report upstream, in case you'd prefer this kind of error to be ignored silently.

Either way, I'm adding a user option that would skip this new completion table, in addition to the already skipped tags-completion-at-point-function, so that the built-in backends for these two sources are still preferred. Those who prefer the completion sources from the Emacs core, can customize this new variable.

[Panadestein]

Hey @dgutov thanks for the prompt answer! That fix indeed suppresses the error. But I am a bit confused. I have a bunch of aspell and hunspell dictionaries on my system, and in fact, spell checking works if I write a typo in text-mode. Could it be related to my config that company does not see the dictionaries?

(use-package company
  :straight t
  :init
  (add-hook 'after-init-hook 'global-company-mode)
  (setq company-minimum-prefix-length 3
        company-selection-wrap-around t
        company-tooltip-limit 20
        company-tooltip-minimum-width 15
        company-tooltip-align-annotations t))

It might also be related to the way NixOS manages envs.

P.D: company-mode is awesome.

[dgutov]

Thanks for testing!

But I am a bit confused. I have a bunch of aspell and hunspell dictionaries on my system, and in fact, spell checking works if I write a typo in text-mode. Could it be related to my config that company does not see the dictionaries?

There is no setting up of dictionaries on our side in this example. ispell-completion-at-point just errors out: in ispell-lookup-words call. I'm not sure about flyspell -- perhaps you have it separately configured to point to the installed dictionaries? E.g. the variable flyspell-default-dictionary.

You can try ispell completion (in the same buffer) without company just by pressing C-M-i.

[Panadestein]

My flyspell config is also very simple, I think:

(use-package flyspell
  :straight nil
  :hook
  ((prog-mode . flyspell-prog-mode)
   (text-mode . turn-on-flyspell))
  :config
  (flyspell-mode +1))

When I C-h-v flyspell-default-dictionary I see that the variable is nil.

But C-M-i actually works (meaning it gives suggestions). My full config is here.

[dgutov]

But C-M-i actually works (meaning it gives suggestions).

Hmm, but which suggestions? Is it bound to flyspell-auto-correct-word (which apparently flyspell does by default when enabled)? You can also invoke M-x complete-symbol explicitly to try to reproduce the error.

I haven't seen the error myself: the option is for the users to be able to prefer company-ispell more easily. If the above doesn't help, edebug-ing ispell-lookup-words could be a good next step.

[Panadestein]

Well, that was the right suggestion for debugging. If I type the string examp, and then:

M-x complete-symbol
ispell-lookup-words: ispell-lookup-words: No plain word-list found at systemdefault locations.  Customize ‘ispell-alternate-dictionary’ to set yours.

If I try again with the string examp but this time:

C-M-i
Corrections: exam exam exams ex amp ex-amp example exempt exam's expo examp exam

Some of those suggestions I did not type before in my current session, so I guess they come from a dictionary?

[dgutov]

Yes, but these are from flyspell-auto-correct-word, not ispell-completion-at-point:

Corrections: exam exam exams ex amp ex-amp example exempt exam's expo examp exam

Flymake does use ispell under the covers, but in a different way. So it's likely a bug one way or another, but one that can be easily reproduced without company (on your machine, but not mine). If you want to debug this further, this should help: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Using-Edebug.html