GNU bug report logs - #37141
ispell-skip-html is poorly documented, e.g. for XML

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 27.0.50; spelling doesn't work in XML comments
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 15:10:14 +0200

$ cat sp-test.xml
<!-- zzz -->
$ emacs -Q sp-test.xml

which loads the file in nXML mode. If I select "zzz" and do an
ispell-region, a mistake is detected. But if I select the whole
line and do an ispell-region, the mistake isn't detected.


In GNU Emacs 27.0.50 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.10)
 of 2019-08-20 built on cventin
Repository revision: 50dc4ca8d02a466a7236765edf83ae7cfb02d74c
Repository branch: master
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.12004000
System Description: Debian GNU/Linux bullseye/sid

Recent messages:
Loading /home/vlefevre/share/emacs/site-lisp/mutteditor.el (source)...done
Loading time...done
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.

Configured using:
 'configure --prefix=/usr/local/emacs-trunk'

Configured features:
XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG SOUND GPM DBUS GSETTINGS GLIB NOTIFY INOTIFY
ACL LIBSELINUX GNUTLS LIBXML2 FREETYPE HARFBUZZ M17N_FLT LIBOTF XFT ZLIB
TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS GTK3 X11 XDBE XIM THREADS LIBSYSTEMD PDUMPER LCMS2
GMP

Important settings:
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  value of $LC_CTYPE: en_US.UTF-8
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Memory information:
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Message #8 received at 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
Cc: 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#37141: 27.0.50; spelling doesn't work in XML comments
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 16:34:09 +0300

tags 37141 notabug
thanks

> From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
> Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 15:10:14 +0200
> 
> 
> $ cat sp-test.xml
> <!-- zzz -->
> $ emacs -Q sp-test.xml
> 
> which loads the file in nXML mode. If I select "zzz" and do an
> ispell-region, a mistake is detected. But if I select the whole
> line and do an ispell-region, the mistake isn't detected.

That's a feature, see ispell-skip-html.

Message #13 received at 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#37141: 27.0.50; spelling doesn't work in XML comments
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 15:50:04 +0200

On 2019-08-22 16:34:09 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> tags 37141 notabug
> thanks

I disagree. That would be at least a documentation bug.

> > $ cat sp-test.xml
> > <!-- zzz -->
> > $ emacs -Q sp-test.xml
> > 
> > which loads the file in nXML mode. If I select "zzz" and do an
> > ispell-region, a mistake is detected. But if I select the whole
> > line and do an ispell-region, the mistake isn't detected.
> 
> That's a feature, see ispell-skip-html.

This is not documented in the Emacs manual.

BTW, XML is not HTML.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent <at> vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)

Message #16 received at 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#37141: 27.0.50; spelling doesn't work in XML comments
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 16:15:01 +0200

retitle 37141 ispell-skip-html is poorly documented, e.g. for XML
tags 37141 - notabug

First, there's no mention of it in the manual. That's bad.

And in the ispell.el file:

(defcustom ispell-skip-html 'use-mode-name
  "Indicates whether ispell should skip spell checking of SGML markup.
If t, always skip SGML markup; if nil, never skip; if non-t and non-nil,
guess whether SGML markup should be skipped according to the name of the
buffer's major mode."
[...]

"SGML markup" does not make any sense in XML. Here, that seems to
be XML comments (XML markup, e.g. tags, attribute names, and even
attribute values, is skipped in all cases, which is what is expected,
IMHO).

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent <at> vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)

Message #19 received at 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
Cc: 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#37141: 27.0.50; spelling doesn't work in XML comments
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 17:16:37 +0300

> Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 15:50:04 +0200
> From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
> Cc: 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> On 2019-08-22 16:34:09 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > tags 37141 notabug
> > thanks
> 
> I disagree. That would be at least a documentation bug.

I don't see why.  See below.

> > That's a feature, see ispell-skip-html.
> 
> This is not documented in the Emacs manual.

We don't document every obscure feature in the manual, that would make
it too large.  Some user options are left out.  I don't see why this
one is important enough to add it, sorry.

> BTW, XML is not HTML.

Yes, and neither is SGML.  But a variable has a doc string, which is
supposed to say more than just the name.

Message #26 received at 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#37141: 27.0.50; spelling doesn't work in XML comments
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 16:29:42 +0200

On 2019-08-22 17:16:37 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > > That's a feature, see ispell-skip-html.
> > 
> > This is not documented in the Emacs manual.
> 
> We don't document every obscure feature in the manual, that would make
> it too large.  Some user options are left out.  I don't see why this
> one is important enough to add it, sorry.

That's not an obscure feature. The default is actually very silly.
There's no reason to exclude XML comments by default.

> > BTW, XML is not HTML.
> 
> Yes, and neither is SGML.  But a variable has a doc string, which is
> supposed to say more than just the name.

A user who does not know this variable and what it does will never
find it. Moreover, the doc string makes no sense. People should
learn how to write good documentation.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent <at> vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)

Message #31 received at 37141-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
Cc: 37141-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#37141: 27.0.50; spelling doesn't work in XML comments
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 17:50:57 +0300

> Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 16:15:01 +0200
> From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
> Cc: 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> (defcustom ispell-skip-html 'use-mode-name
>   "Indicates whether ispell should skip spell checking of SGML markup.
> If t, always skip SGML markup; if nil, never skip; if non-t and non-nil,
> guess whether SGML markup should be skipped according to the name of the
> buffer's major mode."
> [...]
> 
> "SGML markup" does not make any sense in XML. Here, that seems to
> be XML comments (XML markup, e.g. tags, attribute names, and even
> attribute values, is skipped in all cases, which is what is expected,
> IMHO).

I fixed the doc string to be more detailed.

Thanks.

Message #34 received at 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
Cc: 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#37141: 27.0.50; spelling doesn't work in XML comments
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 17:53:25 +0300

> Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 16:29:42 +0200
> From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
> Cc: 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> > We don't document every obscure feature in the manual, that would make
> > it too large.  Some user options are left out.  I don't see why this
> > one is important enough to add it, sorry.
> 
> That's not an obscure feature.

We will have to disagree on that, I think.

> The default is actually very silly.

It's a defcustom so that everyone who thinks the default is silly
could change it to their liking.

> There's no reason to exclude XML comments by default.

Maybe we have a missing feature, then.

> A user who does not know this variable and what it does will never
> find it.

I didn't know about it, and yet found it in about 10 sec.

> Moreover, the doc string makes no sense. People should learn how to
> write good documentation.

I hope I learned, now ;-)

Message #37 received at 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#37141: 27.0.50; spelling doesn't work in XML comments
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 17:01:35 +0200

On 2019-08-22 17:50:57 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> I fixed the doc string to be more detailed.

+SGML markup is any text inside the brackets \"<>\" or entities
+such as \"&amp;\".  See `ispell-html-skip-alists' for more details.

After testing again, this does not do what I want: I want to enable
spell checking for comments (which are usually English text), but
not for element names and attribute names, of course!!!

Note: It happens that element names and attribute names may be
English, but quite often, this is not always the case. In any
case, spell checking is rather useless on them thanks to XML
validation.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent <at> vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)

Message #40 received at 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#37141: 27.0.50; spelling doesn't work in XML comments
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 17:12:45 +0200

On 2019-08-22 17:53:25 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 16:29:42 +0200
> > From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
> > Cc: 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> > 
> > > We don't document every obscure feature in the manual, that would make
> > > it too large.  Some user options are left out.  I don't see why this
> > > one is important enough to add it, sorry.
> > 
> > That's not an obscure feature.
> 
> We will have to disagree on that, I think.

Well, now I know what it does excatly (my testing was incomplete),
I agree that's an obscure feature. But you misread my original
bug report, which was *only* about XML comments (obviously not
all markup): "spelling doesn't work in XML comments"

> > There's no reason to exclude XML comments by default.
> 
> Maybe we have a missing feature, then.

Yes, apparently a missing feature (unless there's some undocumented
variable with an obscure name and documentation...).

> > A user who does not know this variable and what it does will never
> > find it.
> 
> I didn't know about it, and yet found it in about 10 sec.

I searched only about "XML". The user is not expected to spend
hours trying to search every variant (HTML, SGML, SVG, MathML,
etc.).

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent <at> vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)

Message #43 received at 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
Cc: 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#37141: 27.0.50; spelling doesn't work in XML comments
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 18:14:19 +0300

> Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 17:01:35 +0200
> From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
> Cc: 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> After testing again, this does not do what I want: I want to enable
> spell checking for comments (which are usually English text), but
> not for element names and attribute names, of course!!!

Does "M-x ispell-comments-and-strings RET" do what you want?

Message #46 received at 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#37141: 27.0.50; spelling doesn't work in XML comments
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 17:47:48 +0200

On 2019-08-22 18:14:19 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> Does "M-x ispell-comments-and-strings RET" do what you want?

No, it skips the text elements.

For instance:

<!-- aazzz -->
<zzz>
abzzz
<zzz>aczzz</zzz>
</zzz>

With ispell-comments-and-strings, it just detects aazzz.
With ispell-region, it just detects abzzz and aczzz.

I wish both at the same time.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent <at> vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)

Message #49 received at 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 37141 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#37141: 27.0.50; spelling doesn't work in XML comments
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 18:07:11 +0200

On 2019-08-22 17:47:48 +0200, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> On 2019-08-22 18:14:19 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > Does "M-x ispell-comments-and-strings RET" do what you want?
> 
> No, it skips the text elements.
> 
> For instance:
> 
> <!-- aazzz -->
> <zzz>
> abzzz
> <zzz>aczzz</zzz>
> </zzz>
> 
> With ispell-comments-and-strings, it just detects aazzz.
> With ispell-region, it just detects abzzz and aczzz.
> 
> I wish both at the same time.

I forgot to add: there's the complex question of attribute values,
which may contain English text or not, depending on the context.
Ideally, there should be a fine configuration for that or some
generic filtering (masking) solution. For the time being, let's
say that for attribute values, either solution would be fine.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent <at> vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)

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