[ESS] ess-mode: Wrong type argument: syntax-table-p, nil

[Leon]

Stephen Eglen <S.J.Eglen at damtp.cam.ac.uk> writes:

>  > 
>  > Ess-mode 5.2.12 produces an error as in the title of this post under
>  > GNU Emacs 22.0.50.1.
>  > 
>  > But after other commands such as 'R', a second run of ess-mode is
>  > fine. Is this a bug?
>
> I too use a similar set up with Emacs from CVS  (although
> date 2006-01-13), so it could be an Emacs bug rather than ESS.
> In the meantime, if the error occurs on start up, try:
>
> emacs --debug-init
>
> and send us the error file generated if there is one. 
> Otherwise, if the error comes later, try (from the manual):
>
No error.

>
>    If Emacs reports an error, backtraces can help us debug the problem.
> Type "M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET".  Then run the
> command that causes the error and you should see a *Backtrace* buffer
> containing debug information; send us that buffer.
>

Error message:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument syntax-table-p nil)
  set-syntax-table(nil)
  ess-mode()
  call-interactively(ess-mode)
  execute-extended-command(nil)
  call-interactively(execute-extended-command)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you.
-- 
Leon