Re: flyspell-mode fails in non-existing directory

[martin rudalics]

> after finding a new file in a not yet created directory, flyspell-mode
> fails with:
>
> (file-error "Setting current directory" "no such file or directory"
>             "/Users/nik/Desktop/foo/")

True, but when "finding" that file Emacs should have told you

Use M-x make-directory RET RET to create the directory and its parents

which you apparently ignored ;-) and when trying to save the buffer Emacs
would tell you

basic-save-buffer-2: ...: no such directory

> ispell seems to work around this for synchronous processes, but apparently not
> for `start-process'.

I presume both ispell and flyspell use asynchronous processes on your
system.  Moreover the same error should be issued for synchronous ones.
In fact, both `start-process' and `call-process' have identic code here:

    current_dir
      = expand_and_dir_to_file (Funhandled_file_name_directory (current_dir),
                                Qnil);
    if (NILP (Ffile_accessible_directory_p (current_dir)))
      report_file_error ("Setting current directory",
                         Fcons (current_buffer->directory, Qnil));

What would you want Emacs to do instead?