Re: map: major-mode --> font-lock-defaults

[Sam Steingold]

> * In message <address@hidden>
> * On the subject of "Re: map: major-mode --> font-lock-defaults "
> * Sent on Mon, 29 Jan 2001 14:40:53 -0500
> * Honorable "Stefan Monnier" <monnier+gnu/address@hidden> writes:
>
> > great, this explains the reason for the bug, but not how to work around
> > it without using `font-lock-defaults-alist'.
> 
> The "don't use" here means "don't put anything there" rather than
> "don't look at it".

You mean this is a "read-only" variable?
I thought that "obsolete" means that it will go away in a future
version, so one should not use it at all.

> > how do I get hold of the `font-lock-defaults' associated with a mode
> > without resorting to
> >         (with-temp-buffer (c-mode) font-lock-defaults)
> 
> That's the only generic way that I know of.

isn't this ugly and wasteful (having to create a buffer and set up a
mode just to get the `font-lock-defaults')?
shouldn't there be another way?

> > in particular, what is wrong with using symbol properties, like
> >         (get 'c-mode 'font-lock-defaults)
> 
> Nothing in particular except that it's not the way chosen by Emacs'
> font-lock and since Emacs' way has other advantages (such as the fact
> of being automatically inherited), there's little incentive to change.

wait a second: it was _not_ automatically inherited from c-mode to
d-mode (yes, you say the reason is administrative, not technical, but
the bottom line is: it is not _always_ automatically inherited!)

I admit that solving an administrative problem with technical might not
be quite right [even though RMS started FSF to solve an administrative
copyright problem by technical means of re-implementing everything
 -- but I digress :-].
Nevertheless, the problem _does_ exist, and has to be addressed.

in the previous message, you wrote:
> This is because it's a bit more difficult to move it back into CC-mode
> (the font-lock regexps for it currently live in font-lock.el) because
> of the independent maintainership.

what about `lisp-mode' and `emacs-lisp-mode'?
they are mentioned in `font-lock-defaults-alist', but they are
maintained by the FSF, right?

Thanks for your help...

-- 
Sam Steingold (http://www.podval.org/~sds)
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