When flyspell is enabled it doesn't show spelling errors on all visible text (like most text editors that support spell checking).
When moving the cursor over text, misspelled words become underlined.
While running flyspell-buffer works, it's a manual operation and can be slow on large files.
Is there a way to run the spell checker on visible text, updating after scrolling? Perhaps using delays so it doesn't make scrolling lag.
There are minor modes that do just this, although they don't use flyspell.
Example use:
(use-package spell-fu)
(global-spell-fu-mode)
Example use:
(use-package wcheck-mode
:commands (wcheck-mode)
:init
(custom-set-faces
'(wcheck-default-face ((t (:underline (:color: "red" :style wave))))))
(setq wcheck-language-data
'(("American English"
(program . "/usr/bin/enchant-2")
(args "-l" "-d" "en_US")
(action-program . "/usr/bin/enchant-2")
(action-args "-a" "-d" "en_US")
(action-parser . enchant-suggestions-menu)
(read-or-skip-faces
;; Only check comments & strings.
((emacs-lisp-mode c-mode)
read
font-lock-comment-face
read
font-lock-string-face)
(nil)))))
(setq wcheck-language "American English"))
Example use:
(load "speck")
(setq-default speck-syntactic t) ;; Only check comments and strings.
(setq-default speck-engine 'Aspell)
(setq-default speck-delay 0.1)
(setq-default speck-pause 0.1)
(custom-set-faces
'(speck-guess ((t (:underline (:color: "red" :style wave)))))
'(speck-miss ((t (:underline (:color: "orange" :style wave)))))
'(speck-doublet ((t (:underline (:color: "brown" :style wave)))))
'(speck-mouse ((t (:underline (:color: "yellow" :style wave)))))
'(speck-query ((t (:underline (:color: "or" :style wave))))))
(setq speck-personal-dictionary-file ispell-personal-dictionary)
For reference: The example below runs the spell checker on a timer, however it gives many messages:
Blocking call to accept-process-output with quit inhibited!!
.. Which I worked around by temporarily disabling logging, however this is far from ideal.
On the other hand, in practice I've found this to be usable.
(defvar-local flyspell-visible-last-window-range nil)
(defun flyspell-visible--overlay-refresh-from-timer ()
(when (equal flyspell-visible--delay-buffer (current-buffer))
(let* ((sta (window-start))
(end (window-end))
(range (list sta end)))
(when (not (equal range flyspell-visible-last-window-range))
(setq inhibit-redisplay t)
(let ((log-max message-log-max))
;; don't log
(setq message-log-max nil)
(flyspell-region sta end)
(setq message-log-max log-max)
(message nil))
(setq-local flyspell-visible-last-window-range range)
(setq inhibit-redisplay nil)))))
;; Timer
(defvar flyspell-visible--delay-timer nil)
(defvar flyspell-visible--delay-buffer nil)
(defun flyspell-visible-turn-on ()
"Enable spell checking on a timer"
(when (timerp flyspell-visible--delay-timer)
(cancel-timer flyspell-visible--delay-timer))
;; Delay for spelling - should be ok, only runs when scroll changes.
(setq flyspell-visible--delay-buffer (current-buffer))
(setq flyspell-visible--delay-timer
(run-with-idle-timer
1.0 t 'flyspell-visible--overlay-refresh-from-timer)))
(defun flyspell-visible-turn-off ()
(when (timerp flyspell-visible--delay-timer)
(cancel-timer flyspell-visible--delay-timer))
(setq flyspell-visible--delay-timer nil)
(setq flyspell-visible--delay-buffer nil)
(setq flyspell-visible-last-window-range nil))
setqs, just do (let ((message-log-max nil)) (flyspell-region sta end) (message nil))
My reputation is not sufficient to "Add a comment", so writing in a full answer...
This is a copy-paste from ideasman42 for reference answer with flyspell-visible--overlay-refresh-from-timer function wrapped into with-local-quit macro. It should solve Blocking call to accept-process-output with quit inhibited!! messages problem.
Also, I replaced (flyspell-region sta end) invocation with (let ((flyspell-issue-message-flag nil)) (flyspell-small-region start end)):
(defvar-local flyspell-visible-last-window-range nil)
(defun flyspell-visible--overlay-refresh-from-timer ()
(with-local-quit
(when (equal flyspell-visible--delay-buffer (current-buffer))
(let* ((start (window-start))
(end (window-end))
(range (list start end)))
(when (not (equal range flyspell-visible-last-window-range))
(setq inhibit-redisplay t)
(let ((flyspell-issue-message-flag nil))
(flyspell-small-region start end))
(setq-local flyspell-visible-last-window-range range)
(setq inhibit-redisplay nil))))))
;; Timer
(defvar flyspell-visible--delay-timer nil)
(defvar flyspell-visible--delay-buffer nil)
(defun flyspell-visible-turn-on ()
(when (timerp flyspell-visible--delay-timer)
(cancel-timer flyspell-visible--delay-timer))
;; Delay for spelling - should be ok, only runs when scroll changes.
(setq flyspell-visible--delay-buffer (current-buffer))
(setq flyspell-visible--delay-timer
(run-with-idle-timer 1.0 t 'flyspell-visible--overlay-refresh-from-timer)))
(defun flyspell-visible-turn-off ()
(when (timerp flyspell-visible--delay-timer)
(cancel-timer flyspell-visible--delay-timer))
(setq flyspell-visible--delay-timer nil)
(setq flyspell-visible--delay-buffer nil)
(setq flyspell-visible-last-window-range nil))
Another small improvement could be adding flyspell derived mode that runs flyspell-visible--delay-timer by default:
(define-minor-mode flyspell-visible-mode
"Flyspell visible mode."
:lighter " FlyV"
:parent flyspell-mode
(if flyspell-visible-mode
(progn
(flyspell-mode 1)
(flyspell-visible-turn-on)
(message "Flyspell visible mode enabled"))
(flyspell-mode -1)
(flyspell-visible-turn-on)
(message "Flyspell visible mode disabled")))
window-scroll-functionshook because there are exceptions, which took me quite a bit of time to finally semi-understand [after pestering Eli and Stefan with a few bug reports ...]; and, I combined it with thepost-command-hookto try and come up with something for all situations .... Eventually, I took the plunge and started learning C and am now pestering Eli and Stefan on the Emacs devel mailing list instead ... :) To see how this can work in Lisp, have a look at thelinum.ellibrary that has been deprecated in favor of built-in line number in Emacs 26+.Blocking call to accept-process-output with quit inhibited!!messages).flyspell-mode?