Re: [SPAM UNSURE] Maybe we're taking a wrong approach towards tree-sitter

[Arthur Miller <arthur.miller@live.com>]

Óscar Fuentes <ofv@wanadoo.es> writes:

> Arthur Miller <arthur.miller@live.com> writes:
>
>> I undestand that having specialized regex matcher is more efficient than
>> some generalized regular matcher current font-locking in Emacs relies
>> upon, but is it *that* more efficient to be worth the extra troubles?
>
> AFAIU this is not about efficience, but mainly about correctness (modern
> languages are increasingly more difficult to analyze)

Ok, I understand, and I can buy that one. Question is if it is still
worth just for the syntax hightlight and indentation? If I get some
spurious color here or there sometimes not colored, do I care?

Can that syntax tree of TS be exposed to lisp and used for some other
purposes, or is it just internal to TS and only output we see is some
colors on the screen?

>                                                       and also about
> decreasing the maintenance load.
Sure, but it is also a limitation. If Emacs will rely on TS maintainers
to create new grammars and update existing ones when language changes,
it means Emacs users will have to wait for changes until they are
fixed upstream, similar as how gnu/linux distros work regarding
packaging. Of course, a user who wish to modify or introduce new
language can always rely on old font-lock or go through pain of TS
toolilng based on JS and custom tools. Lisp frontend to that toolchain
can probably be developed but that is even more work.

>                                  In the process, Emacs gets support for
> some new languages too.

Yes, it is always nice I guess :). Is there really demand for some
language currently provided in TS and not in Emacs?

I don't know, I am maybe overly sceptical to TS; I don't mean it is a
bad package, and I am sure it has it's place in other editors, I am just
not sure how it fits in Emacs where everything is easily configurable
and extensible.