From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Miles Bader Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: "Font-lock is limited to text matching" is a myth Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:17:46 +0900 Message-ID: References: <7b501d5c0908091634ndfba631vd9db6502db301097@mail.gmail.com> <200908101335.24002.danc@merrillprint.com> <87my67s8mr.fsf@randomsample.de> <1249942011.29022.15.camel@projectile.siege-engine.com> <1249955428.29022.186.camel@projectile.siege-engine.com> <9c768dc60908102347v57bdf38ara9fe2179f68c07e4@mail.gmail.com> Reply-To: Miles Bader NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1249982490 20109 80.91.229.12 (11 Aug 2009 09:21:30 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:21:30 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Daniel Colascione , David Engster , Daniel Colascione , Lennart Borgman , Deniz Dogan , Stefan Monnier , emacs-devel@gnu.org, Leo To: Steve Yegge Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Aug 11 11:21:21 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1ManXa-0001jL-OM for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:21:11 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:34304 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1ManXY-0000pF-P4 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:21:08 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1ManUW-00008z-IT for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:18:00 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1ManUR-00008b-Qs for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:18:00 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=52729 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1ManUR-00008Y-Lu for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:17:55 -0400 Original-Received: from tyo202.gate.nec.co.jp ([202.32.8.206]:48153) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1ManUO-0003Vj-Om; Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:17:53 -0400 Original-Received: from relay31.aps.necel.com ([10.29.19.54]) by tyo202.gate.nec.co.jp (8.13.8/8.13.4) with ESMTP id n7B9HR2s012574; Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:17:47 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: from relay31.aps.necel.com ([10.29.19.16] [10.29.19.16]) by relay31.aps.necel.com with ESMTP; Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:17:47 +0900 Original-Received: from dhlpc061 ([10.114.113.123] [10.114.113.123]) by relay31.aps.necel.com with ESMTP; Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:17:47 +0900 Original-Received: by dhlpc061 (Postfix, from userid 31295) id EFF2552E23E; Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:17:46 +0900 (JST) System-Type: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu Blat: Foop In-Reply-To: <9c768dc60908102347v57bdf38ara9fe2179f68c07e4@mail.gmail.com> (Steve Yegge's message of "Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:47:37 -0700") Original-Lines: 29 X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: Solaris 8 (1) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:114043 Archived-At: Steve Yegge writes: > V. Font Lock framework design problems > > There seems to be a common misconception flitting about to the > effect that font-lock is perfect and will never need to change. I don't think that's true at all -- I think most of us realize that font-lock sucks. On the other hand, most attempts to do ad-hoc highlighting also seem to suck (this is always my initial assumption). Since there's a _lot_ to be gained from using a common framework (consistency, maintainability, etc), it's far preferable that packages use a standard sucky framework, than their own sucky code. Thus the tendency to approach any new package that doesn't use font-lock with skepticism: It isn't so much a vote of confidence in font-lock, as it is a recognition that the alternative is _usually_ worse... If that's not true in your case, then great -- as Stefan said, maybe it's a good example of an alternative approach, and something that could be used to experiment with possible future highlighting/parsing/etc frameworks that do a better job than font-lock. -Miles -- Defenceless, adj. Unable to attack.