RE: ipa and ispell

[Drew Adams]

>  > We do? Fix what? Fix ispell? OK. Change Emacs to handle 
>  > attempts to split the minibuffer window other than by
>  > raising an error? No - why?.
> 
> Fix ispell.el which is part of Emacs

Yes.

> and, if needed, provide additional functionality for
> finding a suitable window.

Fix the code for Ispell, yes. Make it DTRT (e.g. "find a suitable window"), so
that Emacs doesn't raise an error and users can get the Ispell info they need -
yes.

That doesn't imply any need to add some new, general functionality to Emacs.
Finding a suitable window to display information is something we do all the
time.

>  > I don't see it as _imperative_ ("we have to fix that") for 
>  > Emacs to do something special if a program tries to split
>  > the minibuffer window.
> 
> If a user tries to spell-check a word and is told that some 
> window can't be split, we have to fix that.

Yes. Ispell needs to be fixed.

> For example, by telling the user that words in the minibuffer
> window can't be spell-checked.  I'd prefer a fix which does
> spell-check words in the minibuffer window and does not try
> to split the minibuffer window, though.

Yes, absolutely.

None of that implies a need to change the general Emacs treatment of trying to
split the minibuffer window, which is to just raise an error.

We apparently agree that this is only about fixing Ispell. Sorry if I
misunderstood you.