Re: Fwd: [ELPA] New package: pspp-mode.el for PSPP/SPSS syntax highlighting

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

Hi Ben,

Thanks for chiming in,

> SPSS syntax is bizarre. It has two modes: "batch" and "interactive" mode.

Aha!

> A syntax file might be written in either syntax.  There's no way to
> easily guess which one.
>
> In "interactive" syntax, a command ends with a line that ends with . or
> with a blank line.

So that's the syntax that's documented in the Texinfo, and that's the
syntax handled by `segmenter_parse_comment_1__`?

> PSPP can be configured to interpret files in either syntax mode. It's a pain
> requiring users to do this, so by default it tries to guess on a line-by-line
> basis: if a line is not indented and if it begins with keywords that are an
> SPSS command name, then it assumes that it is the beginning of a command
> and that the previous command ended. This is nasty also, but it works
> well most of the time regardless of what syntax mode the file was written
> in.

Thanks.
I guess `pspp-mode.el` should try to reproduce the same DWIMish behavior.

Yet another question: do comments (either "*" or "COMMENT") always start
in column 0 or can they start indented or even on the same line as some
other command, as in:

    input program.  * let's get started.

> I think that's why the file above gets treated the way it does.
>
> Maybe PSPP should treat comment commands specially. That would
> be yet another special case in the lexer/parser, but maybe it is warranted.

Of course, I prefer it when comments are handled in the lexer rather
than in the parser, so they can occur anywhere between tokens, but
I expect that this boat has sailed ;-)


        Stefan