Re: A vision for multiple major modes: some design notes

[Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>]

Hello, John.

Trust you've had a good holiday!

On Mon, Jun 13, 2016 at 02:17:40PM -0700, John Wiegley wrote:
> >>>>> Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> writes:

> > The essence of major mode support is buffer local variables. (Things like
> > the syntax table and local key map are basically buffer local variables,
> > even though they are not accessible as such from Lisp.) So, at first sight,
> > each "island" in the buffer needs its own set of "buffer local" variables.

> I don't agree that this is the essence of major mode support. Another aspect
> of major modes is an expectation of which text properties might occur
> throughout the buffer, and where and why.

OK.  Shall we agree that the buffer local variables are a crucially
important part of what constitutes a major mode?  :-)  Clearly text
properties are important (indeed, in the case of, e.g., CC Mode
critically important) too.

> -- 
> John Wiegley                  GPG fingerprint = 4710 CF98 AF9B 327B B80F
> http://newartisans.com                          60E1 46C4 BD1A 7AC1 4BA2

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).