Richard M. Stallman wrote:
>     For web template files (like PHP, JSP, Genshi etc) there are however
>     often several major mode chunks involved. In for example a php file
>     there may be chunks with these major modes
> 
>       - nxhtml-mode / html-mode
>       - php-mode
>       - css-mode
>       - javascript-mode
> 
> It seems to me that if PHP files are likely to contain these other
> things, it is good for Emacs to handle them automatically in PHP files.

Yes, I agree.

> Here's one way: rename the basic PHP mode to `php-only-mode', and
> define `php-mode' as the mumamo mode to handle all of these.  What do
> you think?

I am not sure. I liked html+php-mode better.

Maybe using the name php-mode would also create confusion since the name
is already in use. However php-only-mode may be a good choice.

BTW, php-mode.el (or some version of it) is still not in Emacs. I am
distributing it as part of nXhtml (and it can also be found on Emacs Wiki).

> Another variant is to make `php-mode' check for other languages, and
> call either `php-only-mode' or `php-mumamo-mode'.  Or perhaps it could
> select among a larger variety of modes, depending on what combinations
> of languages are actually used in one file.
> 
> If we don't do this, users can cope by adding explicit -*- specs.  But
> that is inconvenient, so why not do this automatically?

I have suggested a different solution to this quite general problem. I
think a list of major mode priorities would be better. I have
implemented that in majmodpri.el which I am resending here. (I think I
might have made some changes since last time I sent it.)