Changing the default perl mode

Changing the default perl mode

[Joe Higton]

Hi,

As an emacs evangelist in the Perl community I like to give people
advise on how to get started using emacs for Perl development.
Unfortunately step 1 is to tell them that whilst the standard emacs
perl-mode isn't very good, it can be easily be swapped for the vastly
superior cperl-mode via a quick modification to their .emacs
file... Getting them start hacking around in their configuration files
isn't always the best start for people who are trying emacs for the
first time.

After a recent debate on the Perl subreddit I thought I'd come and at
least ask the question: What are the chances of changing the default
emacs mode for Perl to cperl-mode? I realise that changing such things
from underneath users is probably something which you don't undertake
lightly, but cperl-mode seems to be mature and also the established
favourite with developers, so I'd say there is a strong case for this.

Thanks,

Joe Higton.

Re: Changing the default perl mode

[Paul Eggert]

On 01/27/2012 05:30 AM, Joe Higton wrote:
> What are the chances of changing the default
> emacs mode for Perl to cperl-mode?

If that's the established favorite, then I'd say the chances
should be fairly good.  I suggest filing a bug report (you can
use M-x report-emacs-bug), preferably with a patch; you can then
track its status at <http://debbugs.gnu.org/>.  Emacs is
in feature-freeze right now, in preparation for Emacs 24,
so any change wouldn't happen right away.

Re: Changing the default perl mode

[Jim Meyering]

Paul Eggert wrote:
> On 01/27/2012 05:30 AM, Joe Higton wrote:
>> What are the chances of changing the default
>> emacs mode for Perl to cperl-mode?
>
> If that's the established favorite, then I'd say the chances
> should be fairly good.  I suggest filing a bug report (you can
> use M-x report-emacs-bug), preferably with a patch; you can then
> track its status at <http://debbugs.gnu.org/>.  Emacs is
> in feature-freeze right now, in preparation for Emacs 24,
> so any change wouldn't happen right away.

Good idea.  Long overdue.
It would be good for new Perl/Emacs users everywhere.
I've been a happy user of cperl-mode since 1997, and never
looked back (so I don't know if perl-mode is now a competitor).