Re: [PATCH] Re: cc-mode fontification feels random

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hello, Perry.

On Mon, Aug 30, 2021 at 15:03:43 -0400, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
> On 8/30/21 14:50, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> >> For years and years now, I've been thinking we just need more
> >> deterministic parser-and-based mode support, and I still think that, but
> >> on a realistic level, that doesn't seem to be coming any time soon.

> I note that Tree Sitter integration is in active development now...

Yes.  At some time in the future it will work, presumably well.

> >> In the meantime, is there any general approach we might be able to use
> >> to get stuff like the attached to stop happening?
> > Here, "stuff like the attached" was having some types correctly
> > fontified, others not.  This was due to the order, somewhat random, in
> > which a type is recognised as such and entered into a CC Mode table, and
> > its use being scanned in a jit-lock chunk.

> > The following patch is an attempt to improve this situation.

> I think we are inevitably hitting the wall here, because it is not 
> possible to parse a context free grammar with regular expressions. One 
> can only move around the suck, one can't actually remove it without 
> parsing the underlying language.

I'm not aiming at perfection.  It's a fairly simple hack whose aim is to
reduce the level of Daniel's (and others') irritation.  I think there's
now a general understanding that parsing the language is needed for
accurate fontification (and indentation).  But that is some way off,
yet.

> Perry

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).