Re: emacs rendering comparisson between emacs23 and emacs26.3

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: 조성빈 <address@hidden>
> Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2020 04:04:08 +0900
> Cc: Dmitry Gutov <address@hidden>, address@hidden,
>  address@hidden
> 
> > I'm not sure what limitations they have in mind: font-lock supports
> > functions, not just regular expressions.  Why does it have to be
> > replaced?
> 
> According to them, font-lock doesn’t provide enough control. This is the 
> exact text quoted from the linked issue:
> 
> >> so, we don't need to reinvent the wheel but neither rely on font-lock in a 
> >> way that limit us, as I see it, we can implement our own syntax highlight 
> >> functions for each grammar available and let font-lock use them instead of 
> >> the defaults. Unless, of course, I'm missing something.
> > 
> > That only covers how to highlight a region. I think the main complexity is 
> > in the change-handling mechanisms, i.e. which regions should be 
> > re-highlighted, when.

But that's exactly the problem that jit-lock solves, and solves well.
Because only the display engine knows exactly what parts need to be
re-highlighted and when.  IOW, this problem is already solved, all
that's needed is to play by jit-lock's rules.

> > More generally, I'm surprised, to say the least, that such a
> > significant job is being done without saying even a single word here,
> > let alone making sure the basic design is deemed reasonable by the
> > core developers.  Do they really think this will make the acceptance
> > of the code easier?
> 
> Actually I’m surprised that people here on the mailing list expects people to 
> ask here — I think most people aren’t even aware of this list, and even if 
> they do, they prefer working on Github + MELPA, with the community. 

I'm quite sure that everyone knows where the Emacs maintainers can be
contacted.

> I’m pretty sure they aren’t aiming to merge the code into Emacs — they’re in 
> to write another external package, like lsp-mode or magit.

As I wrote in another message, I don't believe doing so is viable for
a core feature such as font-lock or major-mode support in general.
Magit is different, since it's an application, not a core feature
designed to be basis for applications.  And if LSP mode wants a long
life and many applications built upon it, it should come to Emacs core
as well, at least IMNSHO.