Re: Using incremental parsing in Emacs

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Cc: address@hidden, address@hidden
> From: Dmitry Gutov <address@hidden>
> Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2020 04:41:53 +0300
> 
> > If we provide infrastructure for using the likes of Tree-Sitter in
> > core, how long do you think it will take until someone rewrites their
> > JS generator of parse tables in Lisp?  And we already have machinery
> > in place for loading external shared objects; it can be extended if
> > necessary to handle loading parse tables.
> 
> It's should be easy enough to convert between the JS and Lisp syntax. 
> But how do you compile it to a library that Tree-Sitter expects without 
> having the user install a C compiler toolchain?

Yes, users who want to compile their own parsers, or recompile
existing ones, will have to have a C compiler installed.  Which is a
downside, but not a serious one in this case, IMO, because most users
will use existing parser tables.  I'd expect most if not all of such
tables to come together with the Emacs-adapted Tree-Sitter package, or
be available on ELPA, or even (gasp!) in core.

> IIRC you objected against features relying on something like this in the 
> past.

If users need to make changes in this stuff frequently, then yes, it's
a serious disadvantage to need a compiler.  But it doesn't seem to be
the case here, not up front anyway.