Re: IDE

[David Kastrup]

Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:

>> From: David Kastrup <address@hidden>
>> Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2015 20:46:13 +0200
>> 
>> Emacs sucks at multiple-language buffers out of the box.  They are
>> inherent for any form of literate programming, they are rather prevalent
>> for embedding languages in HTML, they are useful for things like Texinfo
>> with embedded examples, I'd need them for LilyPond (which integrates
>> Scheme code).  Many IDEs are single-language to start with, and if they
>> aren't, they are either generic or single-language per file.
>> 
>> There is mmm-mode but it's not part of ELPA (and probably not
>> copyright-assignable, at least that's my guess of why it might be out).
>> And I strongly suspect that some stronger core features inside of Emacs
>> would be desirable, like keeping indentation and font-locking engines
>> and syntax constrained to regions identified with overlays or text
>> properties.
>
> I indeed think that we should have infrastructure to turn on a major
> mode in a region of a buffer.
>
> I'm not sure we should use text properties or overlays for that,
> though.  The region could be part of the command that turns on the
> mode with region limits stored in markers.

A typical LilyPond score file switches into Scheme thousands of times
(most of the time just for a single scalar Scheme constant where an
actual mode switch would not necessarily be required, but also for all
user-defined functions and any non-trivial non-music expression).

-- 
David Kastrup