Emacs 21.2 align.el - Perl hash element alignment bug

Emacs 21.2 align.el - Perl hash element alignment bug

[Jari Aalto+mail.emacs]

(emacs-version)
"GNU Emacs 21.2.1 (i386-msvc-nt5.0.2195) of 2002-03-19 on buffy"

    1) M-x cperl-mode
    2) load-library align
    3) Write the above tests

    align.el behaves incorrectly in cperl-mode where the code reads:

        %hash =  ( one => 1
                  , amnMore  => 2
                  , hm => 3
                  , likeThisOne  => 4-!-
                  );               
 
    Position cursor (-!-) anywhere at the end of the above lines and
    call M-x align-newline-and-indent. The problem is that align.el
    seeks first "=":

                %hash           =  ( one => 1
                  , amnMore     => 2
                  , hm          => 3
                  , likeThisOne => 4
                           
                  );

                   
    It should be smarter and align according to "=>". I studied the
    code, but I do not undertand the syntax rules used there enough to
    make any suggestions.

        %hash =  ( one           => 1
                  , andMore      => 2
                  , hm           => 3
                  , likeThisOne  => 4
                  );               

    Jari


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Re: Emacs 21.2 align.el - Perl hash element alignment bug

[John Wiegley]

>>>>> On Mon Dec 23, Jari writes:

> It should be smarter and align according to "=>". I studied the
> code, but I do not undertand the syntax rules used there enough to
> make any suggestions.

Align is not smart enough to maintain "state", and thus make
intelligent decisions about alignment priority, or what should and
what shouldn't be aligned.  These are just line-by-line regexps,
after all.

In cases like this where is definite confusion, you, the human, will
have to step in.  Simply type M-x align-regexp on the region, and
then type "=>".  This will do exactly what you want.

John