Re: [PATCH] Flymake support for C/C++

[joaotavora@gmail.com (João Távora)]

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the quick reply.

Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> writes:

> I must admit not to being too keen on CC Mode changing like this; it
> would spoil the unity of purpose of the mode.  I've glanced through the
> new code, but can't quite see why it needs to be an integral part of CC
> Mode.

Does setting a variable in the mode function make it an "integral part"?

> What is stopping the needed setup and initialisation being in a
> function to be added to one of the mode's hooks: say c-mode-common-hook,
> or even c-initialization-hook (which are documented in the CC Mode
> manual)?

I may be wrong, but I thought hooks were reserved for the user and
should be empty by default. But even if they weren't I don't think it
would work:

c-initialization-hook doesn't work, as flymake-diagnostic-functions is
a hook which needs a buffer-local value.

c-mode-common-hook is where a user would turn on `flymake-mode'. I, for
example, have this in my .emacs, which is the recommended way to turn on
a minor mode:

  (add-hook 'c-mode-common-hook 'flymake-mode)

If the setup is also moved to c-mode-common-hook, then this won't work
(because flymake-mode activation comes before its setup).

> If there is any reason why it couldn't work on a CC Mode hook,

Absolutely no reason, but those two don't seem to fit. Perhaps some new
hook run before c-mode-common-hook.

> I'd far rather solve that reason (thus making the solution available
> for other libraries too, and pres<erving the unity of CC Mode).

I don't understand what the boundaries of that "unity" are, but I do
understand cc-mode.el seems to be a special citizen in Emacs
major-mode-land.

Anyway Flymake wants to be a part of the global infrastructure for major
modes, which includes setting variables for recent "fancy" stuff like
ElDoc (eldoc-documentation-function), and older stuff like newcomment.el
(comment-*), to give just two examples. My patch does the same for
Flymake and flymake-diagnostic-functions.

João