Re: A new major-mode for Python

[Chong Yidong <cyd@stupidchicken.com>]

Fabian Ezequiel Gallina <galli.87@gmail.com> writes:

> The possibility of being the maintainer is never a crappy offer, but
> I'm really scared about the effort we would put into doing the kind of
> merge you propose, I can't really see that approach as
> productive. (The mode I wrote shares *very little* code with trunk's
> python.el)
>
> It was at that time I started thinking in writing a python mode from
> scratch in order to have a *clean* working version of the things I
> expected from it. The result is this thing I uploaded to github :)

It's good to have a clean working version as the base from which to
work, and I don't object in principle to removing functionality that's
truly not needed.  But it's preferable to make changes in the trunk code
systematically.

Even though the mode you wrote does not closely match what's in the
trunk, it should still be possible to break it up into separate pieces.

For example, the first step could involve replacing
python-beginning-of-defun and python-end-of-defun and the functions they
use (i.e. the the indentation engine).  This would allow other hackers
to study the diff, and figure out (i) in what ways the new code really
is an improvement, (ii) whether any features are lost, and (iii) whether
any commands and customizable options, on which users might depend, are
lost or changed in a backward-incompatible way.

And then repeat the procedure for the other parts: font lock, python
shell support, pdbtrack support, and so forth.

It is a bit more work than just dumping a brand new file into place.
But I don't think it's an unreasonable amount of work, especially if
other hackers are willing to help, and the advantages would be great.