the amazing (and amazingly old) filladapt mode

the amazing (and amazingly old) filladapt mode

[Adam Doppelt]

Does anyone else use filladapt mode for filling paragraphs? This thing
is great. It modifies fill-paragraph to handle a wide variety of line
prefixes. See examples below. It's hosted by the author here:

http://www.wonderworks.com/download/filladapt.el

filladapt hasn't been updated since 1998 but miraculously continues to
work, albeit with a few warts. I also get the sense that it's not a
very good citizen since it overwrites some core functions rather than
advising them.

I'm wondering if some kind soul would like to modernize it and add it
to elpa, or possibly bring the equivalent functionality to
adaptive-fill-mode. Unfortunately my elisp skills are quite weak,
otherwise I'd attempt it myself. I think a lot of people would
appreciate the effort.

Examples from filladapt.el:

1. xxxxx
   xxxxx

2.1.3  xxxxx xx x xx x
       xxx

a. xxxxxx xx
   xxx xxx

1) xxxx x xx x xx   or   (1) xx xx x x xx xx
   xx xx xxxx                xxx xx x x xx x

a) xxxx x xx x xx   or   (a) xx xx x x xx xx
   xx xx xxxx                xxx xx x x xx x

2a. xx x xxx x x xxx
    xxx xx x xx x

1a) xxxx x xx x xx   or   (1a) xx xx x x xx xx
    xx xx xxxx                 xxx xx x x xx x

-  xx xxx xxxx   or   *  xx xx x xxx xxx
   xxx xx xx             x xxx x xx x x x

o  xx xxx xxxx xx x xx xxx x xxx xx x xxx
   xxx xx xx

Thanks,

Adam

Re: the amazing (and amazingly old) filladapt mode

[Glenn Morris]

Adam Doppelt wrote:

> I'm wondering if some kind soul would like to modernize it and add it
> to elpa, or possibly bring the equivalent functionality to
> adaptive-fill-mode.

I suspect the copyright assignment issue is likely to prevent this.

It's probably better to make bug reports describing specific instances
of how you feel the current fill code is lacking.

Re: the amazing (and amazingly old) filladapt mode

[Adam Doppelt]

I don't know the back story here so please forgive my ignorance. Would
it help if I reached out to Kyle directly? I'd love to see it updated,
maintained and (maybe) even rolled into emacs.

Or I can just write up some thoughts regarding adaptive-fill-mode and
file a bug, if that would inspire someone to take it on.

Adam

On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 2:44 PM, Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> wrote:
> Adam Doppelt wrote:
>
>> I'm wondering if some kind soul would like to modernize it and add it
>> to elpa, or possibly bring the equivalent functionality to
>> adaptive-fill-mode.
>
> I suspect the copyright assignment issue is likely to prevent this.
>
> It's probably better to make bug reports describing specific instances
> of how you feel the current fill code is lacking.

Re: the amazing (and amazingly old) filladapt mode

[Barry Warsaw]

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On Oct 02, 2012, at 12:23 PM, Adam Doppelt wrote:

>Does anyone else use filladapt mode for filling paragraphs? This thing
>is great. It modifies fill-paragraph to handle a wide variety of line
>prefixes. See examples below. It's hosted by the author here:
>
>http://www.wonderworks.com/download/filladapt.el

Yes, filladapt is wonderful and so is Kyle Jones.  Where, oh where, is he
these days?

(Sorry, I have no spare cycles to hack on this. ;)

Cheers,
-Barry

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the amazing (and amazingly old) filladapt mode

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Adam Doppelt writes:

 > Does anyone else use filladapt mode for filling paragraphs?

Sure.  It's wonderful, and AFAICS will never be in Emacs because its
principal author is an assignment refusenik for philosophical reasons.

To get this (and a few other goodies not in Emacs) for Emacs, I would
say the best thing would be to contribute an ELPA interface to our
package system so that people can use it as an (unofficial third-
party) ELPA repository.  I'd be happy to do the XEmacs repo admin side
of things (since I'm one of a very few with the necessary access), but
don't have time to figure out XEmacs pkg -> ELPA conversions for a while.

OTOH, AFAIK kyle@wonderworks.com will still reach him, and you can ask.

Re: the amazing (and amazingly old) filladapt mode

[Jambunathan K]

Adam Doppelt <amd@gurge.com> writes:

> Does anyone else use filladapt mode for filling paragraphs? This thing
> is great. It modifies fill-paragraph to handle a wide variety of line
> prefixes. See examples below. It's hosted by the author here:
>
> http://www.wonderworks.com/download/filladapt.el
>
> filladapt hasn't been updated since 1998 but miraculously continues to
> work, albeit with a few warts. I also get the sense that it's not a
> very good citizen since it overwrites some core functions rather than
> advising them.

Possibly [OT]

Try Orgmode.  It has sensible filling and export to ascii.  It is an
active project and you can always raise a FR against Orgmode if filling
in Org files is found wanting in some areas.

FYI, recent Orgmode manuals even go to the extent of saying that use of
filladapt.el is discouraged.

So, in effect, it will be win-win for both you and the Orgmode project.

It is better to NOT whack a senile horse when you can buy yourself an
young one.

> I'm wondering if some kind soul would like to modernize it and add it
> to elpa, or possibly bring the equivalent functionality to
> adaptive-fill-mode. Unfortunately my elisp skills are quite weak,
> otherwise I'd attempt it myself. I think a lot of people would
> appreciate the effort.
>
> Examples from filladapt.el:
>
> 1. xxxxx
>    xxxxx
>
> 2.1.3  xxxxx xx x xx x
>        xxx
>
> a. xxxxxx xx
>    xxx xxx
>
> 1) xxxx x xx x xx   or   (1) xx xx x x xx xx
>    xx xx xxxx                xxx xx x x xx x
>
> a) xxxx x xx x xx   or   (a) xx xx x x xx xx
>    xx xx xxxx                xxx xx x x xx x
>
> 2a. xx x xxx x x xxx
>     xxx xx x xx x
>
> 1a) xxxx x xx x xx   or   (1a) xx xx x x xx xx
>     xx xx xxxx                 xxx xx x x xx x
>
> -  xx xxx xxxx   or   *  xx xx x xxx xxx
>    xxx xx xx             x xxx x xx x x x
>
> o  xx xxx xxxx xx x xx xxx x xxx xx x xxx
>    xxx xx xx
>
> Thanks,
>
> Adam
>
>

-- 

Re: the amazing (and amazingly old) filladapt mode

[Stefan Monnier]

> Does anyone else use filladapt mode for filling paragraphs? This thing
> is great. It modifies fill-paragraph to handle a wide variety of line
> prefixes. See examples below. It's hosted by the author here:

As you probably saw from the answers, the situation is rather sad:
- It won't make it to GNU ELPA for political reasons.
- Even if it weren't for the political issues, it won't make it into
  Emacs proper because of implementation details.

OTOH, I did look into improving fill.el to do filladapt-style things,
many years ago, and still have some of the resulting features around.

But for some reasons, I got distracted along the way, and then the code
bit-rotted a little, so it's not "ready for inclusion" and will instead
require a re-implementation.  But at least, some of the implementation
should be fairly easy.

So I suggest you M-x report-emacs-bug to request enhancements, listing
the cases that you care about.


        Stefan

Re: the amazing (and amazingly old) filladapt mode

[Nix]

On 2 Oct 2012, Adam Doppelt uttered the following:

> Does anyone else use filladapt mode for filling paragraphs? This thing
> is great. It modifies fill-paragraph to handle a wide variety of line
> prefixes.

I can confirm that it is excellent.

> I'm wondering if some kind soul would like to modernize it and add it
> to elpa, or possibly bring the equivalent functionality to
> adaptive-fill-mode. Unfortunately my elisp skills are quite weak,
> otherwise I'd attempt it myself. I think a lot of people would
> appreciate the effort.

What a coincidence. Doing just that is already at the top of my todo
list: I might get to it this weekend, since I have another
emacs-obsessed friend coming round and we need something to hack on. :)

It might be rather... interesting to make it advise functions rather
than overriding them -- its definitions of things like fill-region are
quite divergent from the core's, and take over the core's entire job.
But certainly filladapt's versions should be upgraded so that it can do
everything the core's versions have learned to do in the years since the
millennium (e.g. multiple forms of justification rather than just one).
That, at least, shouldn't be too hard.

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