Re: [PATCH v2] Remove Python2 "file" from the list of keywords

[Stefan Kangas]

Konstantin Kharlamov <Hi-Angel@yandex.ru> writes:

> On Wed, 2025-01-29 at 23:26 +0900, kobarity wrote:
>> Konstantin Kharlamov wrote:
>> > So, it's been a few days, nobody seems against, so I'm attaching a
>> > patch. Please review 😊
>>
>> I think it should be announced in etc/NEWS.
>
> Thank you, done!
> From ffda4e954d157b544453b388458f1ec414d17abd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: Konstantin Kharlamov <Hi-Angel@yandex.ru>
> Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2025 08:35:31 +0300
> Subject: [PATCH v2] Remove Python2 "file" from the list of keywords
>
> `file` was a built-in type in Python2, removed in Python3.  Nowadays,
> word `file` is a frequent identifier name that people use in short
> file-related code sections.  Having it highlighted looks odd in a
> code.  As a prior art, Vim and VS Code don't currently highlight
> `file` specially.
>
> This was recently discussed on emacs-devel with the conclusion it is
> okay to remove `file` from the list of keywords.
>
> * etc/NEWS: Announce "file" keyword removal.
> * lisp/progmodes/python.el (python-font-lock-keywords-level-2): Remove
> "file" from the list.
> ---
>  etc/NEWS                 | 6 ++++++
>  lisp/progmodes/python.el | 3 +--
>  2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/etc/NEWS b/etc/NEWS
> index f7e9f283709..ca16079ad64 100644
> --- a/etc/NEWS
> +++ b/etc/NEWS
> @@ -807,6 +807,12 @@ exist.  If "python" points to Python 2 on your system, 
> you now have to
>  customize these variables to "python3" if you want to use Python 3
>  instead.
>
> +---
> +*** Remove "file" from the list of keywords.
> +In Python 3 "file" has no special meaning, and in modern code the word
> +is frequently used as a variable name.  To make sure highlight in such
> +code doesn't look off, we no longer highlight "file".
> +
>  ---
>  *** Support of 'electric-layout-mode' added.
>
> diff --git a/lisp/progmodes/python.el b/lisp/progmodes/python.el
> index c00de2d6a8d..63798687928 100644
> --- a/lisp/progmodes/python.el
> +++ b/lisp/progmodes/python.el
> @@ -715,9 +715,8 @@ python-font-lock-keywords-level-2
>             "staticmethod" "str" "sum" "super" "tuple" "type" "vars" "zip"
>             "__import__"
>             ;; Python 2:
> -           "basestring" "cmp" "execfile" "file" "long" "raw_input" "reduce"
> +           "basestring" "cmp" "execfile" "intern" "long" "raw_input" "reduce"
>             "reload" "unichr" "unicode" "xrange" "apply" "buffer" "coerce"
> -           "intern"

I understand that "file" probably the top most common one, but, looking
at the above list of builtins, many of the remaining ones should be
attractive names to use as well:

    apply
    basestring
    buffer
    cmp
    coerce
    execfile
    file
    intern
    long
    raw_input
    reduce
    reload
    unichr
    unicode
    xrange

If we're anyways making changes here, maybe we should just take the
plunge and drop all of the Python 2 builtins?  It should be relatively
harmless for Python 2 users, I think, and it's easier to explain what
we're doing in etc/NEWS.