How to call a function in an elisp program, and follow the interactive path?

Question

If I call ispell-check-version interactively (through M-x) it got this answer:

@(#) International Ispell Version 3.3.02 12 Jun 2005, ispell.el 3.6 - 7-Jan-2003

Fine. Now let's say I want to call it from a program. I expect to get the same result. But the function behaves differently when not call interactively. Its documentation tells so, and indeed it does. Let's try in the *scratch* buffer (evaluated with C-u C-x C-e):

(ispell-check-version)

returns me : "/opt/local/lib" !! Not exepected.. How can I make the function behaves and the return the same result now that I call it "programatically" as when I was calling it "interactively" please?

Answer 1

call-interactively is what you are looking for.

(call-interactively 'ispell-check-version)