Re: Tracking buffer positions across time, without markers (was Re: PL support)

["Clément Pit-Claudel" <cpitclaudel@gmail.com>]

On 09/05/2020 17.38, João Távora wrote:
> On Sat, May 9, 2020 at 8:47 PM Clément Pit-Claudel <cpitclaudel@gmail.com <mailto:cpitclaudel@gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>     Can you clarify what you mean by 'a solved problem'?  
> 
> 
> I meant it in the context of LSP. 
>  
> 
>     One long-standing issue that I've had with Emacs is that I don't know of a way to track buffer positions without adding markers.  Here's a concrete example:
> 
>     I start with a buffer that contains "int foo ()", and send that to a subprocess (say a syntax highlighter, for example).  It returns [0:3:type; 4:7:name].  In the meantime, the user has inserted more text in the buffer, which now contains "static int foo ()".  If I apply the highlighting as-is, it will be all wrong!
> 
> 
> Some idle time after you type, Eglot will inform the LSP server
> that things have changed, and it will reply with more stuff
> to highlight. 
> 
> This is how I interpret this.  It's the way it works with, say syntax
> errors, which are already supported.  I've NOT looked at the spec.
> 
> Did this help?

A bit.  But this works only if the interaction is fast enough, right? (Same for syntax errors: positions may well be outdated by the time the errors come back)