Re: Make all tree-sitter modes optional

[Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>]

Hello, Eli.

On Wed, Feb 15, 2023 at 20:33:49 +0200, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2023 17:57:15 +0000
> > Cc: juri@linkov.net, casouri@gmail.com, monnier@iro.umontreal.ca,
> >   larsi@gnus.org, theo@thornhill.no, jostein@secure.kjonigsen.net,
> >   emacs-devel@gnu.org
> > From: Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>

[ .... ]

> > I'm doing my best to help.

> Actually, no, you aren't.  "Help" would be to actively partake in the
> development of c/c++-ts-mode.  You are our best expert on supporting
> these languages, so who better than you to do at least part of this
> job, if not coordinate and guide the few brave souls who are motivated
> enough to do that in record time.  I'm extremely disappointed that you
> completely removed yourself from that effort.  I think we could have
> ended up with much better ts modes if you took part in that these last
> weeks.

I think it's worth answering this point separately.

There's plenty in CC Mode which isn't good, and a danger of me actively
participating in the development of the -ts- modes is that some of this
bad stuff will get transferred.  I'm surely not the best judge of which
bits the bad bits are.

In the very nature of things, there's bound to be some competition
between CC Mode and the new modes, and me being on both "sides" would be
a psychologically uncomfortable position to be in.  In the long run, of
course, CC Mode cannot "win", and I accept that.

But you've got to allow me to have mixed feelings when the project I've
put so much into over ~20 years is facing redundancy.

On top of these considerations, there was a deluge of bugs reported in CC
Mode over the autumn.  I felt my priority had to be the maintenance of CC
Mode.

> Instead, you only speak up to describe the "disadvantages" of these
> new modes, ....

Yes, in the spirit of improving them, much as I have reported bugs in
other parts of Emacs.

> .... and suggest ways to turn them off.

Yes.  Plenty of people like CC Mode, but I don't think you are among
them.  These people are likely to want to carry on using CC Mode, at
least in the short term, and to do this they need a way to switch off the
new modes.  I think you must agree with me there.  Where we differ is
that I want to make this way of restoring CC Mode's position in
auto-mode-alist easy, whereas you seem to be content that it remain
difficult.  I confess I don't understand why.

[ .... ]

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).