Re: Modify text appearance (put spaces after commas just for display)

[Nick Helm <nick@tenpoint.co.nz>]

Alberto Luaces <aluaces@udc.es> writes:

> Hello, I have some inherited code where the style used was to squeeze
> every single non-required white-space.  There are long lists of
> comma-separated values with any spaces on them, rendering the code very
> difficult to read.
>
> So, from the top of your head, what would be the less painful method to
> change every comma to a comma+space, or at least change the color of the
> commas to anything more distinguishable and attach it to the language
> mode hook?

Another option is to alter the buffer's display table by repurposing
whitespace-mode. For example:

(add-hook 'text-mode-hook (lambda ()
  (set (make-local-variable 'whitespace-style) '(space-mark))
  (set (make-local-variable 'whitespace-display-mappings)
        '((space-mark 44 [44 32])))
  (whitespace-mode)))

Change the hook to the language mode you're using. M-x whitespace-mode
toggles the effect off and on, as usual.

--
Nick