[AUCTeX-devel] Proposed patches for tex.el and latex.el

[Mosè Giordano]

Hi all,

I'm writing to propose small changes that can open the door to some
improvement to style files.

1.  Currently, in LaTeX mode `TeX-auto-parser' has the value
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ("savebox" LaTeX-auto-savebox LaTeX-add-saveboxes LaTeX-savebox-list
LaTeX-savebox-changed)
 ("length" LaTeX-auto-length LaTeX-add-lengths LaTeX-length-list
LaTeX-length-changed)
 ("counter" LaTeX-auto-counter LaTeX-add-counters LaTeX-counter-list
LaTeX-counter-changed)
 ("pagestyle" LaTeX-auto-pagestyle LaTeX-add-pagestyles
LaTeX-pagestyle-list LaTeX-pagestyle-changed)
 ("index-entry" LaTeX-auto-index-entry LaTeX-add-index-entries
LaTeX-index-entry-list LaTeX-index-entry-changed)
 ("bibliography" LaTeX-auto-bibliography LaTeX-add-bibliographies
LaTeX-bibliography-list LaTeX-bibliography-changed)
 ("environment" LaTeX-auto-environment LaTeX-add-environments
LaTeX-environment-list LaTeX-environment-changed)
 ("bibitem" LaTeX-auto-bibitem LaTeX-add-bibitems LaTeX-bibitem-list
LaTeX-bibitem-changed)
 ("label" LaTeX-auto-label LaTeX-add-labels LaTeX-label-list
LaTeX-label-changed)
 ("symbol" TeX-auto-symbol TeX-add-symbols TeX-symbol-list TeX-symbol-changed)
 (styles TeX-auto-file TeX-run-style-hooks)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
or something like this.  In this way, automatically parsed files will
have `TeX-run-style-hooks' stuff at the end, and `(La)TeX-add-*'
functions before it.  For many (La)TeX packages it would be useful to
add new type for the parser through `TeX-auto-add-type', but now this
can't work because when reopening the *.tex file `(La)TeX-add-<new
type>' is executed before `TeX-run-style-hooks'.  I suggest to reverse
this behaviour, ie, to make `TeX-run-style-hooks' be written before
`(La)TeX-add-*'.  This can be achieved using `add-to-list' function
with `APPEND' argument set to `non-nil', which also prevents from
multiple inserting types to `TeX-auto-parser'.


2.  Automatically parsed files currently start with the lines
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(TeX-add-style-hook "<style>"
 (lambda ()
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is not how Emacs would indent the code and I find it quite
annoying.  I suggest to use the following style
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(TeX-add-style-hook
 "<style>"
 (lambda ()
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
that is correctly indented and the one used by most of the style files
provided with AUCTeX.


3.  LaTeX packages may do different things according to options passed
to them.  Eg, `biblatex' can use `biber' or `bibtex' as backend,
depending on the value of `backend' option.  AUCTeX prepends options
to `TeX-auto-file' and then prepends corresponding package name, and
so `biblatex.el' style file can't check the value of `backend' option.
 I suggest to append options and package names.  I think
`LaTeX-biblatex-use-Biber' custom variable can be removed since it
should not be needed anymore.  Now, other style files will be able to
executed different code depending on the value of options given to the
package.

I believe that change #2 is harmless, changes #1 and #3 may break
backward compatibility if there is code relying on the current
behaviour of AUCTeX, but I don't see why one should rely on this weird
behaviour.

Actually, I believe it would be more useful not to store options in
`TeX-auto-file' variable, this will also prevent clash between options
or package names.  I've been thinking to store options given to each
package in a variable named something like
`LaTeX-<package>-used-options'.  What do you think about this?

I'm attaching patches to implement previous changes, here is the
corresponding ChangeLog entry:

2013-02-08  Mosè Giordano  <address@hidden>

        * style/biblatex.el: Update copyright range.
        ("biblatex"): Check `backend' option value in
        `TeX-active-styles'.

        * tex-style.el: Upadte copyright years.
        Remove `LaTeX-biblatex-use-Biber'.

        * tex.el: Update copyright range.
        (TeX-auto-add-type): Append new type to `TeX-auto-parser'
        instead of prepending it.
        (TeX-auto-store): Fix indentation of first lines of parsed file.

        * latex.el (LaTeX-auto-cleanup): Append options and styles to
        `TeX-auto-file' instead of prepending them.


Bye,
Mosè Giordano

latex.el.patch
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tex.el.patch
Description: Binary data

biblatex.el.patch
Description: Binary data

tex-style.el.patch
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